I'm speaking to you on this subject
today, separated unto the gospel of Christ, separated unto the
gospel of Christ. In Romans 1, verses 1-4, would
you, following your Bibles while I read these verses, Romans 1,
verses 1-4, and keep your Bible open there before you, because
I'm going to be coming back and referring to these verses as
I go through the message, separated unto the gospel of Christ. Paul,
verse 1, Romans 1, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be
an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he 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 according
to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead."
Now, if you want to learn the gospel, if you would like to
be a student of the gospel of Christ, then I exhort you to
study the Book of Romans. I'm not saying don't read Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, which are called the gospel according to
Matthew and the gospel according to Mark, but if you would learn
the gospel of Then you study the Book of Romans. Read it along
with the life and death and resurrection of our Lord recorded by Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John. But the Book of Romans is the
clearest account of the gospel of God's grace. It's a clear
account. It sets forth man's ruin in positive
terms, chapters 1 through 3. It sets forth God's purpose in
the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th chapters. It sets forth Christ's
redemptive work. It sets forth in Romans 3 how
God can be just and justify the ungodly. So read the Book of
Romans. Ask the Spirit of God to be your
teacher. Don't approach the Word of God with your mind already
made up about doctrines and traditions and ceremonies and plans and
all of these different things. Just buy your Bible, as the old-time
preacher used to say, buy your Bible and ask the Holy Spirit
to be your teacher. and sit down with an open heart
and an open mind and read the book of Romans and ask God to
reveal the gospel of Christ to you, the gospel of God's grace.
Now this book is written by a man called Paul. That's the way he
starts it. But you know, the scriptures
came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul penned
it, God wrote it. The Apostle Paul used his hand
and his pen to put the words down, but God gave him the word.
The scripture says all scripture is inspired of God, or the word
is God breathed. All scripture is God breathed. Now watch how Paul starts this
book of Romans, the first chapter. He says, Paul, you see anything
there, Paul? Not Reverend Paul, not Dr. Paul,
not Bishop Paul, not Archbishop Paul, not Pope Paul. and not
even the apostle Paul. He just says Paul. That's all. Isn't it strange that about perhaps
the only man who ever really deserved recognition didn't take
it to himself? About the only man who ever really
earned a title refused to wear one. He just called himself Paul. You know, our Lord warns us about
this. He says in John 5, 44, how can
you believe? which receive honour one of another,
and seek not that honour which comes from God." You know, those
people went out to hear John the Baptist, and they said, who
are you? Are you the Christ? Well now,
think of the answers he could have given them. He could have
said, I was supernaturally conceived when my mother and father were
very old. He could have said, I am the
forerunner of the Messiah. He could have said, I am a special
messenger sent from God. He could have said, you know,
the Lord said of me, there's none born of woman greater. But this man, John, didn't take
unto himself any of those titles or that recognition. They said,
who are you? And he simply replied, I'm the
voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight a pathway for our
God. You know, James wrote over there
in James 5, 17, Elias was a man subject to like passion. we are. Elias was a man, a mere man,
just a man, nothing more, but a man sent from God, but still
a man. And we have this gospel in earthen
vessels. We're clay. Paul said, I'm not
one whit behind the chief apostle, but I'm nothing. Who is he that
planteth, and who is he that watereth, and who is he that
soweth? Nothing. Just nothing. Even the angels
of God refused recognition when John on the Isle of Patmos was
going to worship that angel. and bow down at his feet. In
Revelation 22, 8 and 9, the angel said, see that you do it not.
For I am, just like you, a servant of God. Don't worship men, don't
worship angels, don't worship apostles, don't worship church
leaders. Worship God. How can we miss
that? How can we miss that? Paul, now
watch the next thing he says. Bond slave of Jesus Christ you
say that says servant. That's right a servant of Jesus
Christ But the word is bond slave bond servant. There's a that's
a special kind of servant That's special kind of slave. It comes
from Exodus 21 1 through 6. It says if a Hebrew is a servant
that he serves for seven years and In the seventh year, he's
free to leave That was the Old Testament, Exodus 21. You couldn't
keep him past that seventh year. He was free to go. But now if
he says, I love my master and I don't want to go free. I love
my family. I love my master. I want to stay
here and serve my master in the same capacity as his slave, as
his servant. Then he says the master is to
take that servant down to the priest and there to bore his
ear to the door with an awl. And he's, from then on, a bondservant. That means he's a willing, loving,
submissive servant. He's not held against his will.
He's not there because he has to be. He's a servant because
he wants to be. He wants nothing, no freedom,
except to serve his Lord. Now that's what Paul calls himself.
He says, Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. And he uses
that term frequently. And then he goes on, he says,
called to be an apostle. Notice the word, called to be
an apostle. He says, I'm not worthy to be
one. He says, I'm less than the least of all the saints. I am
the chief of sinners. But what made the difference?
Who made the difference? God, he says, called me to be
an apostle. Salvation is to be called of
God. Abraham, get thee out of thy
father's house unto the land I will show thee. Abraham was
called of God. God called Moses unto himself. Zacchaeus? God called him. Matthew, sitting by the receipt
of customs? Follow me. Peter, James, John?
He called them. We are the call of Christ Jesus.
It's God who calls. Paul said in Galatians 1.15,
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace. That's what Paul is saying. I'm
called to salvation. I'm called to apostleship. I'm
called to be a bond slave. I'm called, it's God who calls,
and God calls us to Christ. He doesn't call us to a religious
organization, he calls us to a person. Christ said, come unto
me, I'll give you rest. We are the called of Christ Jesus,
and then God calls us by his spirit, through his word. And God calls, watch this, God
calls the unexpected and the unlikely. Who among you would
have thought that this man, Saul of Tarsus, he hated Christ? He hated the gospel. Oh, he was
religious. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
He was a man who respected and admired and kept the Ten Commandments.
He was a teacher of Old Testament scriptures. But he was injurious. He was a blasphemer. And he himself
said, I was a persecutor of the church. I thought if I could
obliterate from this earth the name of Jesus Christ, I'd do
God a favor. That's how Saul of Tarsus tells
it. He's the one that held the coats of the men who stoned Stephen,
the first martyr in the New Testament church. Who would have ever thought
that this man would write 13 epistles, would found so many
churches, would even himself be martyred for the glory of
Jesus Christ, would become a bond slave of Jesus Christ. Who would
have ever thought that this man, Saul of Tarsus, would someday
be a bondservant of the one whom he so despised and hated? But that's the way God calls.
God calls us, and God calls us to Christ, and He calls us by
His Spirit through His Word, and He calls the most unlikely
and unexpected. You know, God said to Samuel,
go down to Jesse's house and anoint a king. And Samuel sent
word to Jesse that he would be down to anoint one of his sons,
and Jesse had seven sons. Big, strapping, fine, handsome
young men. And he had one son named David,
and he figured, well, God wouldn't call him. He's just a lad. So he sent David out into the
field to take care of the sheep, and he kept these six big boys
in there, and he paraded them in front of God's prophet Samuel,
one at a time, beginning at the eldest. And right on down to
the youngest. And every time one of those boys
would come by, Jesse would say, now that's the one. Or Samuel
would say, that's the one. And every one of them, God would
say, no, that's not the one. God said, Samuel, I don't look
on the outward countenance like you do. I look on the heart.
And when all the boys had gone by, Samuel turned to Jesse, and
he said, do you have any more boys? He said, well, I've got
one that you wouldn't want him. Well, he said, go and get him.
sit down to feast till he comes. And when David, that young man,
walked in the door, God said, Samuel, there he is, that's my
king. The most unlikely, least expected,
the one man wouldn't choose, that's the one God called. Listen
to me. In 1 Corinthians 1.26, you see your calling, brethren,
your calling, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world, the unlikely, the unexpected,
the unwanted, to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the mighty, and the base things
of the world hath God chosen. Yea, and things despised, that
no flesh should glory in his presence. That's your calling.
Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called of God to be an
apostle. Now watch this, separated under
the gospel of God. The apostle Paul's whole life
was the gospel of God. He believed it, he was totally
separated unto it, dedicated, consecrated to it, to believing
it, to preaching it, and to living by that gospel. He said in Romans
1 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believes it, to the Jew
first and also to the Greek. He said Christ sent me not to
baptize, not to organize, Christ sent me to preach the gospel.
That's my calling and I'm determined to know nothing among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he said necessity is laid
upon me, woe is unto me if I don't preach the gospel. We're not
out to right all the wrongs. of the world. We ought to preach
the gospel, and if the gospel is preached, the wrongs will
be righted. He gives us some clear identifying
marks now of this gospel, and I want you to listen to them.
Separated unto the gospel of God. First of all, that's whose
gospel it is. It's the gospel of God. I'm separated
not to the gospel of the Baptist Church, or the Catholic Church,
or the Methodist or the social gospel, I'm separated to God's
gospel. There is no other gospel. In
fact, Paul said, if any man preach any other gospel, let him be
accursed. Let him be accursed, even if
it be an angel from heaven. This gospel is called the gospel
of God because he planned it. That's right, he planned it before
the world began. God purposed to save a people.
We read in the Bible of the everlasting covenant. Christ's blood is the
blood of the everlasting covenant. He's the shepherd of the everlasting
covenant. He's the surety of the everlasting
covenant. I have drawn you, God said, with
an everlasting love. So it's an eternal covenant that
Christ fulfilled. And then it's an eternal Savior,
for He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
Christ was no afterthought. The cross was no afterthought.
Christ was the Lamb slain before the sinner fell. an eternal covenant,
an eternal Savior, for an eternal people. Paul wrote in Ephesians
1, 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in the heavenly
places in Christ, according as he chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love, having predestinated us to the adoption
of children according to the good pleasure of his own will.
And then in 2 Thessalonians 2.13, he said, I give thanks for you,
beloved 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. It's God's gospel because he
planned it. He planned it in an eternal covenant. He performed it through an eternal
Savior, and he gave it to an eternal people. And then it's
God's gospel because he executed it. God loved the world and gave
his only begotten Son. We didn't go up to heaven and
bring Christ down. God sent him. In the fullness
of time, God sent his Son into the world. He's the gift of God.
We earn the wages of sin, but Christ is the gift of God. We
nailed him to the cross, but we were carrying out the will
of the Father, because it pleased God, Isaiah wrote, to bruise
him. God executed this thing of salvation. When Pilate said, what shall
I do with Jesus, which is called Christ? Christ said, you don't
have any power to do anything with me, except it be given you
from above. Why, he said to his disciples,
when Peter drew his sword and would have defended the Son of
God in the garden, he said, put up your sword. Why don't you
know I could call upon my Father, and he'd send legions of angels?
This crucifixion of Christ was carried out by the will of the
Heavenly Father. He executed salvation, and then
he applied it. That's what Paul said, I'm called
of God. He applied it. It says in 1 Thessalonians
1, 4, knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. Because
our gospel didn't come to you in word only, it came to you
in power. It came to you in the Holy Ghost.
It came to you in much assurance. And then it's the gospel of God
because He sustains it. He sustains it. My friends, we're
kept by the power of God through faith. Not apart from faith,
but we're kept by the power of God. It's God's gospel. He sustains it. He keeps it alive. I give them eternal life. I keep
them. And then it's the gospel of God
in that he perfects it. Paul wrote in Philippians 1.6,
He that hath begun a good work in you shall perform it, shall
perfect it, shall finish it. He's able to raise our bow bodies
and make them like unto his glorious body. This is the gospel of God.
Paul said, this is the gospel I'm separated to. The gospel
of God. The gospel of God's glory, he
called it in 1 Timothy 1.11. It says according to the glorious
gospel of God our Savior. Well that better translation
is according to the gospel of the glory of God. It's all of
God. It's all of grace. It's all of
mercy. I am what I am by the grace of
God. Now that's the gospel under which
we're separated. The gospel of God. And we have
no other message. And woe is unto me if I don't
preach it. Whether for fear of men or whether
for possessions or filthy lucre or whatever, woe is unto me if
I don't preach this gospel. Now, what's the second thing?
It's the ancient gospel. He says there in verse 2, which
he promised. He said, I'm separated to the
gospel. What gospel is that, Paul? The
gospel which he promised by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.
My friends, the Lord Jesus Christ, as I said a moment ago, is not
an afterthought. God never has saved men but one
way, and that's through Christ. These Jews of the New Testament
of Christ's day, they kept saying, we have Moses, our father. He
said, now Moses wrote of me. If you had believed Moses, you
would have believed me. Moses wrote of me. I'm Moses'
Savior, just like I'm your Savior. I'm Moses' Christ, just like
I'm your Christ. You say, but preacher, wasn't Moses saved
by keeping the law? Moses never kept the law. No
other man has ever kept the law. The law of God is pure and perfect
and holy, and no man has ever been saved by keeping the law.
The law wasn't given to be the Savior. Christ is the Savior.
The law was given as a schoolmaster to bring us to the Savior, to
show us our need of the Savior, and to shut our mouths and render
us guilty before God. What the law says, it says to
them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped. No
man's ever been saved by the law. These Jews kept talking
about, we have Abraham. Christ said, now wait a minute.
If you were Abraham's seed, you'd love me because Abraham saw my
day and was glad. Abraham. He saw the day of Christ
when that ram was caught by its horn in the thicket. And he sacrificed
that ram in the place instead of his son Isaac and took Isaac
off that altar. And God raised Isaac in figure
from the dead, right in front of Abraham's eyes. That's when
he saw the day of Christ. As Moses lifted up that serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish,
so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth. Oh, Christ said to these blind Pharisees,
you search the Scriptures. You're students of the Scriptures.
For in them you think you have life, but they are they which
testify of me. And you don't see me in the Scriptures."
What Scripture is he talking about? The New Testament? It
wasn't written then. He's talking about the Old Testament. Why,
he says, you're busy searching the Scriptures. You think in
the Scriptures you're going to have eternal life, but the Scriptures
testify of me. Read that in John 5, 39. Have
you seen Christ in the Old Testament Scriptures, in Genesis? Christ
is the woman's seed, Genesis 3.15. In Exodus, Christ is the
Passover lamb. In Leviticus, he's the great
atonement. I've given you the blood upon
the altar to make an atonement for your soul. Life of the flesh
is in the blood. In Numbers, he's the brazen serpent
lifted up. In Deuteronomy, he's the city
of refuge. In Joshua, he's Rahab's scarlet
lion. Have you seen that picture of
Rahab dropping the scarlet lion out of the window and God protecting
and passing over? In Judges, he's the angel of
the Lord. In Ruth, he's the kinsman redeemer.
In Psalms, he's my shepherd. To him give all the prophets
witness. It's that gospel which God promised
and prophesied and pictured by his prophets in the Holy Scripture.
And then notice the next verse, verse three. Paul said, I'm separated
to the gospel of God concerning his son. Concerning his son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now here's where we camp. And
here's where we learn the gospel. The gospel is not a proposition. The gospel is the good news of
a person. The gospel is not a plan to be
adopted and followed It is the declaration of a work already
performed and already perfected by a person. Jesus paid it all,
all the debt I owed. Sin left a crimson stain. He
washed it white as snow. There's a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Immanuel's vein, and sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stains. This gospel is concerning, watch
it now, it's concerning his son. This, God said, is my beloved
Son. Hear ye Him. Our Lord prayed
in John 17, Father, the hour has come, thou glorify thy Son,
that thy Son may glorify thee. Thou hast given me power over
all flesh, that I should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given me. The Son of God. The Son of God. His Son. Jesus, Joshua, Savior,
thou shalt call his name Jesus, he shall save his people from
their sin. Behold, the Lord himself shall
give you a sign, a virgin shall be with child, and thou shalt
call his name Emmanuel. Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, the Everlasting Father.
Who is this? That in one breath is called
an infant, and in another breath, the Ancient of Days, the Everlasting
Father. Who in one breath is called a
child, and in another breath is called Wonderful, Counselor,
Prince of Peace. It's none other than the God-Man,
His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ, Messiah. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the Anointed. He's the Appointed. He's the
Messiah. Simeon, the old man of Israel,
waited in the temple. the coming of the Messiah and
God had told Simeon you won't die till you see the Messiah
and his days had gone by so slowly and he was now old and stooped
and wrinkled and gray and finally one day through the door of that
temple came Mary and Joseph with that child and they put him in
the arms of that old man and just as soon as they did he lifted
his eyes to heaven and he said now Lord let thy servant depart
in peace mine eyes have seen thy salvation the Christ His
Son, Jesus Christ. The Christ, the woman at the
well said, when the Christ has come, when the Messiah has come,
He'll tell us all things. And the Lord Jesus said, I'm
He. Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now listen to me. He has always
been Lord. He's Lord now and He always has
been Lord. By Him were all things created,
which are in heaven, earth, and in the seas, and under the earth.
By Him, through Him, and for Him. He's Lord by eternal decree. God has made this same Jesus,
whom you crucified, Lord. He's Lord by death. He died that
he might be Lord of the living and the dead. He's Lord by confession. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess that he's Lord to the glory of God the
Father. He was made of the seed of David,
declared to be the Son of God. And you can visit the grave of
Mohammed. You can visit the grave of Buddha.
You can visit the grave of Confucius. But you waste your time when
you try to find the grave of Jesus Christ. He's not here.
He's risen. He's Lord.