All right, let's turn to the
book of Romans again, if you will. You notice that the book, the
epistle to the Romans, is the first epistle in the New Testament. And the epistle to the Romans
was not Paul's first epistle at all. There were several written
before he wrote this letter to the Roman church. And the decision
by the translators of scripture to place it first is probably
for two reasons. One, I would say, because of
the excellency of this book. The excellence of this book.
John Calvin had this to say. He said, when a person gains
a knowledge of the epistle to the Romans, he has an entrance open to him
to all of the most hidden treasures of Almighty God. The book of
Romans. Oh, the excellency of this book.
That's probably the first reason why they placed it first among
the epistles. There are 21 epistles and this
one's first because I believe of the excellency of it. And
I would say the second reason why they placed it first is because
of the subject matter. The subject matter and chief
design of this book of Romans is to set forth in a clear light
the doctrine of justification by faith alone, apart from works. Justification by faith. Justification is not by law,
nor the obedience to the law, nor by works. Paul said, therefore,
we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of
the law. That's the subject matter of
the book of Romans. Justification. Not by law, works,
tradition, but by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is ours
by faith. Now, I've divided my message.
I'm going to deal with several verses in Romans chapter 1. And
I've divided this message into three parts. It will be easier
for you to remember. The first is this, a definition
of the gospel. You say you've given a definition
of the gospel 10,000 times. I hope to give it at least 1,000
more. I hope to give it at least 1,000
more definitions of the gospel because so few people really
know the gospel. Did you know that? So few people. Then secondly, I'll deal with
Paul's determination to preach that gospel. I am determined
to preach that gospel. And then thirdly, we're going
to look at a revelation of two things. A revelation of the righteousness
of God and a revelation of the wrath of God. Now, verse 1. Verse 1, I hope our hearts will
be open to the Word, will have a desire to know the truth of
God, and a willingness to walk therein. And we may as well start
here. Start with the pulpit. P-A-U-L,
Paul. Now here is a man inspired of
the Holy Ghost, writing literally the Word of God, God breathed,
writing an epistle that will be preserved for thousands of
years, writing to the Church at Rome, and he calls himself
Paul. You know, these Apostles, and
oh, how we could learn from them, these Apostles were men who were
not fond of titles and worldly recognition. Did you know that?
They didn't seek worldly recognition and they didn't take to themselves
titles. I'll tell you this, these titles
and credentials in religion only serve to foster and feed our
pride. That's exactly right. Now, titles are fine. Listen
to me. Titles are fine if they're used
to designate a person's occupation. If a man's a doctor, call him
doctor. That's his occupation. That's
his vocation. That's his business. He's designated
by that title, doctor. Doctor, I need help. If a man's
a professor, then call him a professor. He's a teacher. He's a professor.
And that title's facile. If a man's a chief executive
officer in a company or a foreman, or a president, call him by that
title. It designates his occupation.
If a person is an attorney, call him attorney. That designates
his occupation. What are you, Brother Mayen?
I'm a pastor. If you want to give a preacher
a title, call him what he is, preacher or pastor. But I'm not
a doctor. A lot of folks think preachers
are doctors because they want them down to the hospital every
time they have a toe ache. But I'm not a doctor, and I'm
not certainly a reverend. There's only one reverend according
to the book, and that's his name. Holy and reverend is his name. You say you're making something
out of nothing. No, we've made something out
of a bunch of nothings. by giving them titles. And we
have fed their pride. And they like to be called Master,
Rabbi, and Doctor. And it's an abomination. It really
is. He says, A servant. Here's what I am.
I am a servant of Jesus Christ. Paul, a bond slave of Jesus Christ. Now, I've been called of God
to be an apostle. Paul was an apostle. And it's
alright to call him the Apostle Paul. But my friend, there are
no apostles today. There are no apostles. There
are preachers, there are evangelists, there are missionaries, there
are pastors, but there are no apostles. You see, an apostle In order to be an apostle, a
man had to have two credentials. Number one, he had to have seen
the Lord. Seen the Lord. Had to be with
the Lord when he was here on this earth to have seen Him.
You say, well, Paul didn't see the Lord. Yes, he did, as one
born out of due time. He saw the Lord on the road to
Damascus. Christ revealed himself to Paul. He said that. There
were a lot of people who questioned his apostleship because they
said you weren't with the original twelve. But he had a revelation
of Christ later. And then secondly, an apostle
had to have received his gospel directly from Christ, not from
another man. And Paul did. He said God separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace. Immediately
I conferred not with flesh and blood. I didn't even seek those
who were apostles before me. I went alone into the desert.
He received his gospel from Jesus Christ. And thirdly, now let
me tell you something. These apostles had special credentials. You say this is elementary, but
people don't know it. These apostles had special credentials
to heal the sick, to speak in other languages, to have discernment
of spirits, given a word of knowledge and prophecy, which men in the
pulpit do not have today. Now, they do not have it. I don't
care what they claim, they do not have it. They're a bunch
of hucksters and conmen. Speaking in this gibberish that
they call, the charismatic movement calls tongues, is not tongues
at all, it's foolish gibberish is what it is. It means nothing
to nobody and nothing to God. Now that's so. And they do not
have power in their hands to heal anybody. Don't put your
hand on the television or let them put their hands on you.
And if you're sick and one of them comes by and says he has
the power to heal, you tell him, you dismiss him immediately,
not with your blessings. If you'll turn to Hebrews chapter
1, Hebrews chapter 1, these gifts, it would be all right by me if
God wants to restore them, but they're not in the church now.
And people who seek the gifts are making a dangerous mistake.
You need to seek the Lord. He is the unspeakable gift. In
Hebrews chapter 2 rather, verse 3, Hebrews 2, 3, now listen,
how shall we escape? if we neglect so great salvation
which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing them witness."
Bearing whom witness? Them that heard him, the disciples.
I told you the disciples saw the Lord and got his message
directly from God. And these men went out, they
confirmed the message spoken by the Lord, was confirmed by
them that heard Him, them that saw Him, them that were His apostles,
and God bore these men witness. God bore witness to their apostleship
and to their ministry, how? With signs and wonders, and diverse
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His own will.
God confirmed their ministry. Why did they have to have a confirmation
of their ministry? They didn't have a Bible except
the Old Testament. The New Testament wasn't written.
These men were going out to a hostile world of antagonists, people
who didn't know God, didn't believe God, with nothing but Old Testament
scriptures which said, keep the Passover, keep the Sabbath. followed the priest, going to
the Holy of Holies with a sacrifice. They were going out here to preach
that Jesus Christ is verily the fulfillment of that promise of
the seed of woman, that promise of the Passover, that rock in
the wilderness, that brazen serpent, that priest in the tabernacle,
and God gave these men special, powerful, unusual, diverse signs
and miracles and wonders so that folks would listen to them. You
see, when Paul put his hand in the to put the wood on the fire,
and that snake clamped on his hand a poisonous viper, and he
shook it off in the fire, and they stood there and waited on
him to die. But he didn't die. And they said, this man's from
God. This man's from God. I don't need to do that to prove
I'm from God. All I have to do is read this
Word here and preach it to you, and you listen to the Word, and
if I tell the truth of the Word, you say, God sent him. God sent
him. I don't need any proof of God
or proof of God's Word. Now, the Lord does heal. He tells the church to call the
elders together and anoint people with oil and pray for them and
God will heal. But for a man to go out with
his titles and credentials and claim to be some special apostle
or envoy and speaking in another language and touching people
and healing them and blessing them financially, he is a fraud. He's a follower. The Lord God never meant for
us to follow these charlatans. He meant for us to hear His plain,
ordinary, simple preachers declare the truth and to follow Christ
Jesus. That's right. Don't follow for
that stuff. I tell you, I'm weary of this
day. They don't preach Christ, they preach the Holy Ghost. And
the scripture said, the Holy Ghost will not speak of himself.
He shall take the things of mine, Christ said, and show them to
you. He shall glorify me. Called him an apostle. Look at
verse one. Separated to the gospel of God.
I'm separated to the gospel of God. He was separated from his
womb, from his mother's womb. He said, God separated me from
my mother's womb. And then he was separated to
preach to the Gentiles. God said to Ananias, said, I've
called this man to preach to the Gentiles. And then he was
separated by the Holy Ghost who came and said to the church,
separate me, Paul and Barnabas, for the work wherein I have called
him. Now watch this next verse, which
he promised, I'm separated to the gospel of God, God's gospel. That's whose gospel it is. It
originated with God. It's of God in its origination.
It's of God in its execution. Pleased the Lord to bruise him.
God sent his son into the world. And this gospel of God is no
new gospel. It's an everlasting gospel. They
talk about the gospel of the millennium. Listen to me, if
there's going to be a millennium, I don't know, but the gospel
of the millennium will be the same gospel I'm preaching right
now. And the gospel I'm preaching right now is the gospel Paul
preached. And the gospel Paul preached, he said, is the gospel
Moses preached, which he promised afore by his prophets. These men were prophets. There
are no prophets today. He promised by his prophets in
the Holy Scriptures to him give all the prophets witness. Let
me show you a verse. Turn to Luke 24. Luke 24. You see, the whole Old Testament
is about Christ. It presents Christ. It promises
Christ. It pictures Christ. He said,
Abraham saw my day. He rejoiced to see it. Look at
verse 44 of Luke 24. And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you while I was with you, that
all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law
of Moses, in the prophets, in the Psalms, concerning me. That's what the Old Testament
is all about. It's Christ. Christ. Alright, look back at
our text. Let me see if I can move a little
more quickly. I want to get into these other verses. And verse
3 says, this gospel is concerning his son. The gospel is concerning
his son. And I want to say, when I listen
to preachers, and they keep talking about, now we're sent to preach
the gospel. But we need to be preaching the gospel. You need
to send us some money to preach the gospel. I want to say, well
preach it. Quit talking about it. Quit planning it. Quit talking.
Start preaching the gospel. What is the gospel? It's concerning
Jesus Christ. The gospel's concerning his son.
Here's the subject matter of the whole gospel. It's concerning
his son. Paul said, I'm an apostle, I'm
separated to the gospel, that ancient, old gospel, everlasting
gospel, and it's concerning his son. And it's concerning, particularly,
two things about his son. Listen. Number one, he was made
of the seed of David, according to the flesh. Christ, humanity. Jesus Christ, the main. This
gospel is concerning his humanity. And that'll take us a week even
to begin to commence to get started to talk about his humanity. The
seed of woman. The seed of Abraham. He said,
Abraham, you'll have a son. But Sabaoth's old, up in years,
I'm old. How's it going? Miraculously.
You're going to have a real son. A son that'll come forth from
the womb of Sabaoth. And that's nothing in the world
but prophesying the miraculous birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he's the Lion of Judah. When Jacob blessed all his sons,
he came to Judah. And he put his hand on Judah
and he said, Judah, thou art the kingly tribe. And the scepter
will not depart from Judah till a king, shallow comes, king of
peace. That's Christ. Of the family
of Jesse, of the root, and the house of David, a priest forever
after the daughter of Melchizedek. You see, he was made of the seed
of David according to the flesh. Jesus Christ became a man, born
of a virgin. Behold, the Lord himself will
give you a sign, a virgin shall be with child. And thus a child
is born. His name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor of the Mighty God. The government shall be on his
shoulders. Christ was made of the flesh of David. And the reason for that is this.
There are just two men. God created Adam, and in Adam
he created us. We were represented by Adam.
When Adam stood, we stood. When Adam sinned, we sinned.
When Adam fell, we fell. We stood in Adam. We were of
Adam. We are of the earth, earthy,
just like Adam was. And God said, the dust you are,
the dust you will return. And in Adam we die. Christ is
the second Adam. The first Adam is of the earth.
Earth is the second Adam. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. He didn't spring from Adam's loins. He's the Son of
God. He was begotten in the virgin's womb by the Holy Ghost. He became
flesh like Adam was flesh, but he became flesh without sin.
I tell you, you can't preach the
gospel unless you talk about these things. He was made of
the seed of David according to the flesh. We've got to have
a man. We've got to have a perfect man. We've got to have a representative
man. By man came death. By man came
the resurrection. By man came sin. By man came
righteousness. By man came death. By man came
life. That's right. It's got to be. God didn't give the law and the
covenant of works and law to his divine son. He gave it to
a man. Keep it and live. And it hasn't
changed. It's going to be kept if anybody's
going to live. And it's going to be kept by
you or your representative. So we've got to do that. And
I want to tell these fellows that say they're preaching the
gospel. I grew up in church. I never
heard that. I grew up in a Baptist church. All I heard was, come
down now and accept Jesus. Well, tell me about him. Well,
we don't likely know much about him, but you can accept him.
Well, I got to know something about him before I'm going to
rest in him. Trust him, believe on him. Trust my soul in his
keeping and care. Is he able? Does he have the
right credentials? Has he got an entrance into heaven?
Did God send him? What did he do? He's a man. He's a man. As a man, he redeemed
men. He did all that God required
of men. Now look at the second credential. And he was declared. He was declared. He wasn't made to be the Son
of God. He's already the Son of God. He was declared to be
the Son of God. See, this is his humanity. He
was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, and he
was declared. He is God. I can't divide the
Trinity up and explain it to you. I know our God is one God.
But I do know that the Scripture talks about the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. And I know the Son said, He that
has seen me has seen the Father, and I know the Son is called,
in the same breath He's called the Son, He's called the Everlasting
Father, the Mighty God. He's not an offspring from God.
He is God. He's equal with God. He's declared
to be the Son of God with power. Unlimited power. Unlimited ability. He said all authority is given
unto me in heaven and earth. He said the Father has given
me all authority over all flesh. I wish you'd look at Hebrews
1, 2, and 3. This is what it's looking at right here. Hebrews
1, 2, and 3. Watch this, talking about he's
declared to be the Son of God with power. Hebrews 1, 2, and
3. Hath in these last days God has
spoken to us by his Son, whom God hath appointed the heir of
all things, by whom he made the worlds, who being the brightness
of his glory, the exact, the expressed exact image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when
he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on earth." Does that sound like this little weak,
anemic, pathetic, pitiful Jesus that they're preaching today? He has all authority. Look at
the next line. He's declared to be the Son of
God with power according to the Spirit of holiness. That's the
Holy Spirit. by the resurrection from the
dead. Almighty God declared by the resurrection of his son from
the dead that every promise in Christ was fulfilled. Every promise
in Christ was fulfilled and accepted. God accepted him. Now watch verse 5. And by Christ
we have received, through Christ, grace, grace to believe, apostleship,
our marching orders, we have received our commission to preach
the gospel to all nations, and then he said in verse 6, and
among whom these nations that have come to faith in his name,
you are the call of Christ Jesus. You are the call. All right,
now let's go to verse 14. That's a definition of the gospel.
Definition of the gospel. the good news, the glad tidings
of Christ Jesus. In verse 14, we have Paul's determination
to preach the gospel. He said, I'm a debtor. I am a
debtor. I am a debtor because of the
mercy of God to me in Christ, to me the chief of sinners, because
of a revelation of Jesus Christ to my heart by his grace, Because
of that divine call to the ministry, I have an obligation. I have
an obligation. I'm a debtor. I have an obligation
to fulfill. I have a duty to perform. I have
a debt to pay to all men of all walks of life, whether it be
the Greeks or the barbarians or the wise or the unwise, whether
it be the cultured or uncultured. whether it be men of high standing
or low standing, wise or unwise, wicked or religious, I have a
debt, I have an obligation, I have a duty to perform to tell them
the truth, to preach to them the gospel. And look at verse
15, so much as in me is, I am ready not to match wits with
the intellectuals, not to promote my denomination, Not to take
my own theology and ideas around the world, but I'm ready to preach
the gospel, this gospel of Christ to you that are at Rome also. Rome, the capital city of the
world. Rome, the seat of Satan. Rome
with its power. I'm ready to preach the gospel
in Rome or in Philippi, to the Jew or the Gentile, to the wise
or the unwise, for he said in verse 16, listen, I am not ashamed. Not in the least am I ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ who was born of the sovereign will of God to the
Virgin Mary. I'm not ashamed of that gospel
which addresses all men as sinners. I'm not ashamed of that gospel
which brought the Son of God down to this earth in human flesh.
I'm not ashamed of that gospel which requires a perfect obedience
to God's holy law. I'm not ashamed of that gospel
of a crucified Savior, risen for our justification, who ascended
to the right hand of God, and there intercedes for every believer. I'm not ashamed of that gospel
of Christ who shall come again. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Because, what's this now? It
is the power of God. the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it. I want you to look at three scriptures.
Now, regardless of what men say, there seems to be a school of
thought that says, well, a man will be heard, a man will
be saved without actually hearing this gospel. There are other
ways to say that. That's school, you know. It's
pretty prevalent. And then there are others who
say, well, if God elected you, you'll be saved whether you hear
the gospel or not. Let me point you to two scriptures. One is
in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1 through 4. Now listen, 1 Corinthians
15, 1 through 4. Now remember that verse there
in Romans 1, it said, I am not ashamed of the gospel, it, the
gospel, is the very power of God unto salvation. The power
of God. Now look at 1 Corinthians 15,
verse 1, Moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand,
by which Also you're saved. If you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless you believed in vain, for I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried,
He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. You believe
that gospel? Well, it's by that gospel you're saved. I turn to Ephesians 1, verse
13. Could a man be saved without believing that gospel? No. Not
according to the word. Now in Ephesians 1, in Ephesians
1, you have the Father electing, the Son redeeming, the Holy Spirit
calling. Now watch verse 11 in Ephesians
1. In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance. being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory
who first trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted." When
did you trust Christ? After that you heard the word
of truth. That's when you trusted him,
after you heard. He says, how can they call on
him whom they haven't believed? I said they believe in him of
whom they haven't heard. How are they going to hear without a preacher?
In whom you trusted after you heard the word of truth. What?
The gospel of your salvation. In whom also after you believed
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. One more.
Turn to 2 Thessalonians. Let me show you this one. 2 Thessalonians. Chapter 2. Now listen to this. Paul said,
I'm ready to preach the gospel at Rome, but I'm not ashamed
of the gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation.
I'm literally saying this, that as we define the gospel, as we
preach the gospel, as we tell men what God did in sending His
Son, who Christ is in coming, what Christ effected by His work,
what He accomplished, what he fulfilled, on behalf of whom
he fulfilled it, where he is now. We carefully define this
gospel presented. That very gospel is taken in
the hands of the Holy Spirit and made effectual to a man's
saving faith. It really is that gospel. Now
watch this. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. We are bound to give thanks
always to God for you brethren, beloved of the Lord. because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto he called you, how? By our gospel." You see, this
thing of the necessity of hearing the gospel and believing it doesn't
alter the fact that God chose us. God chose us to salvation. It doesn't change the fact that
Christ accomplished the salvation by his obedience and death, nor
does it change the fact that the Holy Spirit must regenerate
and give life to the sinner. But in that regeneration and
life-giving process, there's a gospel preached and heard and
believed. And that's what he says here.
He says, God chose you. through sanctification of the
Spirit, belief in the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel." Now watch verse 17. And here's a two-fold revelation. For therein, for therein, you know, this is what pastors
and preachers are for. Paul says here in verse 15, I'm
ready to preach, I'm determined to preach the gospel. I'm not
going to be sidetracked. Because he said in verse 16,
I'm not ashamed of this gospel of Christ. And we defined it
over here in the first few verses. He was made of the seed of woman,
declared to be seed of David, declared to be the Son of God.
This gospel itself is the very power of God to your salvation.
Because, verse 17, therein, in that gospel, is the righteousness
of God revealed. In that gospel, a man cannot
know the righteousness of God except in that gospel. God's
righteousness, even his essential holiness. God said, you thought
I was altogether such a one as yourself. I'm not. God is not
a man that he can lie. God is infinitely above us. God is holy, pure, righteous,
perfect. In order to save a people, even
for his name, for his glory, he's got to be true to his holiness,
his righteousness. You see that? He's got to be
just and justifier. He's got to be righteous and
merciful. He's got to be just and love. He cannot alter his
character for any purpose, regardless of how high the purpose may be.
So this gospel of sending his son into the world to be made
in the likeness of flesh and to walk the earth in obedience
to the law, humbly before God, justly and merciful, and to die
on that cross and be buried and rise from the grave, that's God
declaring his righteousness. And you don't know the holiness
and righteousness of God like you know it in view of the cross. Does that make sense, what I'm
saying? The law will not alone reveal
to you the righteousness of God. I hear people say the law is
a summary of the character of God. No, no, no, no, no. No, Christ is a summary of the
character of God. You don't see the love of God
in the law. You don't see any mercy in the law. Well, is God
not love? Is God not mercy? You don't see
any grace in the law. You don't see any forgiveness
in the law. But in Christ you see God's love and God's justice. God loved us and God so loved
the world, he gave his Son. But God so righteous, he spared
not his Son. God so merciful, he gave us his
Son. But God so righteous and holy,
he killed his Son in our place. There is the summary of the character
of God in the person of Christ. We preach the gospel and it's
the power of God and salvation because therein, in that gospel
of Christ, is the righteousness of God. But, twofold, secondly,
in that gospel we see revealed God's righteousness given on
our behalf or for us, the gift of righteousness. We see Christ
performing a righteousness provided in Christ is the end of the lawful
righteousness to everyone that believes. You see that? And that's
got to be seen in the gospel. And I know sometimes you think,
well, brother man, I wish you'd just tell about mother. I wish
you'd just get some good jokes and we need to be lifted. We
need our spirits lifted on Sunday and get some good stories and
antidotes. That's not the way. We're going
to have to get down to business and get serious and study this
book, because we're eternity-bound men and women. We're going to
stand before a holy God who has appointed unto men once to die,
and after that to judgment. And I tell you this, in that
next revelation is the wrath of God's revealed from heaven
against all unrighteousness. Now let me tell you something.
I mean the least unrighteousness. Anybody here, Got any unrighteousness? I mean, even the tiniest speck
of unrighteousness. But you say, yeah, well, God's
wrath's against that. And God's going to have a penny
a pound. He's going to get full price.
Justice will be done. So I don't want to stand in this
righteousness on my own. I want to know the righteousness
of God in Christ. And that's why I get, some folks
think, complicated. Here, please. Well, he's not
much of a preacher. He can teach you a little bit. Well, I hope
I can teach you. I hope I can. I hope we can make
this place here and this, when we meet, where people can come
and sit and open the Word and listen and then go home and open
it again and see if these things be so. You see what I said this
morning, sir. And I know we can tickle the
emotions and tickle the ear and make the flesh to feel comfortable
and go out saying, What a good boy am I. But I want us to go
out saying, what a great God is He, and what a wonderful Savior
is our Lord Jesus Christ. In the gospel is the righteousness
of God revealed. You see it? You got to see it
here before you can see it here. If you see it here, I'm happy.
May God let you see it here. All right. Mike, how about a
song for us? Number 110. Number 110. Alas,
and did my Savior bleed."