Good News - [Romans 1:16-17]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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June 20, 2021

00:00: Well this morning, I'm thinking about John Payton and out of all my
00:12: Favorite missionary stories. This is the one that brings me to tears more than any other when I read about John Payton and his missionary trips to cannibals
00:23: Payton said this For the first time the Dorcas Street Sabbath school teacher's gift from South Melbourne Presbyterian Church was put to use a new communion service of silver
00:38: They gave it in faith that We would require it and in such we received it and now the day had come and gone
00:46: For three years we have toiled and prayed and taught for this At the moment when
00:55: I put the bread and wine into those dark hands once stained with the blood of cannibalism
01:00: But now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the
01:06: Redeemer's love I Had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces.
01:14: I Shall never taste a deeper bliss till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself
01:23: Amazing, how did that happen? What kind of techniques to John Payton use?
01:30: What was the method that transformed that island To use modern terminology was it the church growth programs of maybe 40 days of purpose?
01:41: Maybe everybody walked around with WWJD bracelets on Maybe they all had
01:48: Redeeming the jungle philosophy written books by people in big cities What about Bill Gothard's Institutes?
01:56: Maybe they all had Promise keepers thoughts are maybe the shack or I don't know the way down workshop
02:03: I think the lady just died who came up with that non -trinitarian Deal a few years ago, but anyway,
02:11: I'm beside the point What changes a heart what changes a city what changes a country
02:20: I'm glad you asked. Please turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 1 at this church.
02:30: We have 52 special Sundays a year And they're all called the
02:36: Lord's Day where we proclaim the truth to you about the Lord Jesus Christ I sat there this morning thinking there has not been one mention of Father's Day Except our
02:44: Heavenly Father in heaven, and so that's why we're here Of course, we love fathers, but we're here to hear from the
02:51: Heavenly Father what changes a city a jungle a rural area a Urban environment are a human soul
02:58: The answer is our favorite favorite subject at this church and that is the Lord Jesus Christ From one of my favorite books of the
03:06: Bible the book of Romans Second Peter is done and I had one more sermon before I go on an extended vacation
03:12: This week and I thought if I could pick any passage any sermon any subject any
03:18: Person, what would I preach? I've got one shot. I hope I come back I'm planning on coming back.
03:25: Remember the first pastor of Bethlehem Bible Church went on vacation never came back That's true, right
03:31: Bob. That's actually true. But Bob when you were pastor you came back. I was glad for that We never know when it might be our last sermon.
03:39: I had my blood test a couple weeks ago From the cancer a few years ago. Everything's come back in good shape
03:46: I thought I'll live to die another day I'm ready to preach but you don't know what's going to happen And so I've got one message for a one
03:53: Sunday for a one congregation Today, it's about Jesus Christ in this great gospel.
03:58: I have no better news to give you Romans is one of these books that You can read it as many times as you'd like and you still see wonderful riches found there
04:09: I was not here a couple weeks ago when we had our guest preacher and I was informed last night by Tim Pierce that he preached this passage two
04:17: Sunday nights ago So if you have heard that sermon great you get another one
04:22: And if you haven't here we go this book of Romans people love this book one man said it's the greatest book in the
04:28: Bible Another said if any minister wants to strengthen his people he can hardly do better than to give them a massive dose of Romans William Tyndale who died
04:45: Translating the book of Romans into English along with other New Testament books No man can verily read it too often or study it too well
04:55: For the more it is studied the easier it is the more it is chewed the pleasanter it is the more
05:01: Groundly it is searched the precious er things are found in it. So great treasures of spiritual things lieth hid there in and of course the book of Romans is not just a logical treatise
05:15: It's not just a systematic treatise That's not just this lawyer who's articulating certain thoughts.
05:21: It induces praise does it not? Oh the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God Romans 11 said how unsearchable are his judgments how?
05:31: Unscrutable his ways who has known the mind of the Lord who has been his counselor who has given him a gift that he might
05:38: Be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things To him be the glory forever.
05:45: Amen So we come to the book of Romans It might be a difficult book But it's easy to summarize if you had to summarize the book of Romans with one word that word would be what we know this
05:55: Congregation, what was it? Righteousness, that's right
06:01: It's the word righteousness and here we see in the book of Romans a book about God's righteousness how he is revealing his righteousness
06:09: How his righteousness is vindicated and then applied And so what we're going to do this morning is
06:15: I'm going to ask you a series of questions Designed for you to grasp the gospel to understand it fully so that you might know it so that you don't assume it
06:24: So you know what to say in terms of preaching the gospel to yourself when it comes to evangelism to remind you about this great topic the good news of The Lord Jesus a series of questions for you to grasp this by faith
06:40: If this is the only thing I've ever taught you Then I can die in peace
06:46: Question number one. What is the theme of Romans in terms of which verses are the themes?
06:52: Let's go to verse 16 and 17 Here we see the theme of the book of Romans and probably the theme of the book of Colossians 1st
06:59: Corinthians 2nd Corinthians Galatians Ephesians all of the corpus of Paul. This is the theme of Paul Sent one of the
07:07: Lord Jesus for I'm not ashamed of the gospel a very familiar verse for it is the power of God for Salvation to everyone who believes to the
07:16: Jew first and also to the Greek For in it the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith
07:23: For faith as it is written the righteous shall live by faith
07:29: If you'd like to know the theme of this book It's the gospel of God the good news of God found in verses 16 and 17
07:40: Question number two. What should your attitude be regarding the gospel? What should your attitude be regarding this gospel?
07:48: What does Paul say Paul I think models for us our attitude or what our attitude should be
07:54: For I am NOT ashamed of the gospel Dear friend, you know that the world hates
08:00: Christianity. It's too exclusive. It is not
08:06: Open enough for other religions it calls sin sin it deals with hell eternal judgment the world doesn't want to hear about Sin judgment and hell in our pluralistic world in our post -christian world in our post -modern world in our my truth world
08:23: They don't want to have anything to do with this gospel, but for Paul, what does it say?
08:28: He said I'm not ashamed of the gospel So you have figures of speech in the Bible and here's a figure of speech.
08:34: Anybody know the figure of speech is here It's a lie to tease and it looks like Li totes, but it's pronounced light at ease
08:42: Li T O T ES and what does a lie to tease do? Well, it makes the the
08:48: Bible Say this, you know what I'm gonna state something in a negative way to posit something that's positive
08:57: I'm gonna say something the negative side But I'm really after the positive side if I'm not ashamed of the gospel, then
09:03: I'm what I'm proud of the gospel I'm excited about the gospel other people might think they're embarrassed about the gospel
09:10: But I'm not embarrassed by the gospel at all. And Paul when he got to a city, he did two things remember
09:15: He said Where's the synagogue? I got to go there and preach Christ Jesus from the Old Testament and where's the jail because I'll be there next
09:23: Right, and so Paul was laughed at he was scorned. He was he was stoned
09:29: He's thrown in prison for this truth this singular truth this good news and Paul said
09:37: You know, I'm not I'm not ashamed I'm excited. I'm confident about this message
09:43: BB Warfield a dozen ignorant peasants proclaiming a crucified Jew as the founder of a new faith
09:50: Bearing as the symbol of their worship an instrument, which was the sign of slavery and crime
09:57: Preaching what must have seemed an absurd doctrine of humility and love to enemies
10:03: Grace is undreamed of Demanding that one must have seemed an
10:10: Absurd worship for the one who died like a malefactor and slave And Paul said
10:16: I'm not ashamed. I have no reluctance to talk about I'll stand up for it.
10:28: I Mean, I'm kind of afraid these days For some Christians when the clergy can't stand up to even say we'll have a worship service during kovat
10:38: How are we going to stand up and say Jesus Christ is God no matter what and if you don't believe in him There's no eternal life for you
10:46: This is not tolerant for people this is not loving for people this is narrow for people This is bigoted for people remember what they used to say.
10:54: Oh, they're eating the Lord's Body, and they're drinking his blood those people are cannibals
11:02: They have love feasts, you know, they have all kinds of sexual parties something called love feast
11:07: This is a religion mocked and scorned and ridiculed and Paul said I'd die for this gospel.
11:13: I'd die for the Lord Jesus I'm not ashamed. I'm proud. I know
11:20: Congregation you're bold, but we all have that tendency. You're by the water cooler. You're in the office.
11:25: Remember offices we used to go to offices Oh, you're a
11:31: Christian You're not one of those born -agains. Are you? question three what is the gospel if the theme is the gospel of Romans if The theme of Romans is the gospel if our attitude should be one of boldness and courage and pride and thankfulness
11:53: What actually is the gospel? He says right there in verse 16. I'm not ashamed of the gospel True or false.
12:01: This is the gospel God helps those who help themselves Did you know 82 % of Americans believe that Benjamin Franklin's statement is from the
12:11: Bible He basically stole that from medieval times God will not deny his grace to those who do what lies within their power
12:22: That's not the gospel. That's not good news Be like Jesus isn't good news
12:28: Feed the poor isn't good news get baptized with the Holy Spirit. That's not the gospel speak in tongues
12:34: That's not the gospel the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. That's not the gospel be good be nice By the way, if you talk to anybody in the world and said to them
12:45: What do you think we do on Sunday mornings at Bethlehem Bible Church? What do you think they would tell you? They're like well like a
12:53: TED talk with the Bible Moral ethical things to be good to be nice to serve the community
13:02: That's what they think it's about and sadly many pastors across this land and world
13:08: Feed that I Wonder if somebody asked you they said well,
13:15: I'd like to go to church with you on Sunday. What should I expect? What do you tell them?
13:21: He's reading through Exodus again might be reading Leviticus Now here's what I think you'd say and this is what we're after here at Bethlehem Bible Church.
13:30: We'll sing some songs about Jesus Well, here's some scripture reading all pointing to Jesus as pastor
13:35: Steve showed us this morning Even in 1st Samuel 2 and there's gonna be a sermon extolling the person and work of Jesus Christ the risen
13:43: Savior That's what you'll get if you're not interested in that. I can't really offer anything to you. I'm positive
13:48: We won't get a Father's Day message. I'm positive about that Mother's Day messages, you know mothers are so great
13:55: Father's Day messages fathers get on the stick Why is that The gospel means good news glad tidings
14:07: Something you say on tiptoes something you say that's wonderful. It's a statement of fact
14:14: Wars over Germany destroyed The word gospel means good merry glad joyful tidings
14:26: Tyndale said that makes a man's heart glad and makes him sing dance and leap for joy
14:35: And what Paul starts off this letter he tells us a little bit about this wonderful Gospel you see it in verse 1 of chapter 1
14:42: Paul a servant of Christ Jesus Called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God One of the first things
14:52: I noticed about the gospel if I were to define it, I would say it's not our gospel It's God's gospel.
14:58: He's the one that created it. He's the one that originated it. It's his not ours It's not to be tampered with and it's a gospel of God They used to say well,
15:06: I've got a gospel for you. The Emperor has had a child It's good news, but this is not about the
15:12: Emperor's child. This is about God the Son When I say gospel,
15:18: I hope you regularly say Jesus This is all about Jesus verse 2
15:24: Is it new I mean it's news, but is it new news? No, the Gospels good news, but it has its anchors in the
15:32: Old Testament Romans 1 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the
15:39: Holy Scripture See, I don't really need the Old Testament. I just have my you know, my New Testament.
15:45: That's all I need everything and even as we heard last Sunday night in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 this first gospel and how the
15:53: Seed of the woman's gonna crush the head of Satan and you think of all the types in the
15:58: Old Testament Sacrifices pointing to the God -man Jesus the Kings and the priests and the prophets pointing to the
16:06: Lord Jesus Fulfillment found in the New Testament. It's good news, but it's not new news
16:14: Luther said Christianity did not originate by accident or in the fate of the stars and I love
16:20: Luther he should be on Twitter as Many empty -headed people presume and even verse 17.
16:32: Do you see it? There's no break with the Old Testament. Paul is quoting Habakkuk 2 for the righteous shall live by faith
16:40: The Old Testament brazen serpent put up on the stick. We're pointing to who this person is ultimately in consummation the
16:47: Lord Jesus Even the Lord Jesus said in John 5 you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is
16:55: They the Old Testament that bear witness about me yet. You refuse to come to me that you may have life
17:04: What is the gospel it's about a person That was talked about in the Old Testament and new and look at verse 3.
17:10: He's truly man. He's perfectly man Concerning this son this eternal son who was descended from David according to the flesh
17:23: Here we have the eternal Son of God adds human flesh he's in the Davidic line
17:29: He's truly man the incarnation of Jesus in the beginning was the Word and now the
17:35: Word has become flesh He's conceived in the womb of the
17:40: Holy in the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit's power as one confession said without male participation and And not only that he's not just truly man to be our mediator to be our representative he
17:57: Jesus in verse 4 Is the eternal God?
18:03: He's always been the eternal Son of God But if you'd like to know the highlight that a finding moment that climax to it all
18:09: Where would you see the climax of the Son of God? It's in the resurrection Do you see it and who was declared who is marked out?
18:17: That's where we get the word horizon where we see the sky in the earth. There's a demark Demarcation a dividing line.
18:23: He's declared to be the Son of God. He's always been but we're going to declare with shouts of praise in power according to the
18:31: Spirit of Holiness by his resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ our
18:36: Lord the gospel is about God It was back in the
18:44: Old Testament. It's about the perfect man. Who's also the perfect God and If somebody says
18:50: I've got a gospel to give you and they're not talking about what historically happened at Calvary in Jerusalem eternity passed in the councils of the
18:59: Father the Son of the Spirit. That's not the gospel It's what God did in Christ Historical Jesus 2 ,000 years ago people say do you know what a lot of people never read the
19:11: Gospels? And so what you need to do is you need to be the fifth gospel British evangelist
19:18: Rodney Gypsy Smith said there are five Gospels Matthew Mark Luke John and the Christian But most people have never read the first four
19:27: When I read that you know what I think? The gospel of Jesus according to Matthew the gospel of Jesus according to Luke Mark John and then
19:38: Mike Abendroth That's good news That time that you saw me say something to my wife
19:51: Or were saying something to my kids harshly The gospel is about who
19:57: Jesus is. We're not the fifth gospel The gospel is about Jesus. You should be able to preach the gospel without ever mentioning yourself
20:08: Behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy for under you unto you This day is born in the city of David a
20:14: Savior who is Christ the Lord Jesus is the gospel and Jesus gives forgives
20:21: Justifies redeems declares promises comes into the world to save sinners and bestows grace upon people
20:30: Because he's good and kind Jesus the gospel encourages and comforts and assures and bestows and offers
20:38: The gospel says this is what God the triune God has done in Christ on behalf of you sinner the good news offers the good news declares
20:51: Here's what it declares. If you're a Christian, I have good news for you Did you know all your sins have been washed away every sin you've ever committed washed away freely?
21:03: Pardoned there's an old writer. His name's Casper Olivianus and I love to call him
21:12: Casper the friendly Olivianus just to be reminded My wife grew up in a pretty strict brethren home
21:21: She was not allowed to watch bewitched or probably she wasn't allowed to watch Casper the friendly ghost
21:26: But she was probably allowed to read Casper the friendly Olivianus the gospel or the good news that delights the heart of the poor condemned sinner is a
21:36: Revelation of the fatherly and immutable will of God in which he promised us who are unworthy
21:43: That all our sins have been washed away and pardoned not just for the rest of our lives
21:49: But indeed forever He carries out this promise by giving his son to die for us and by raising him
22:00: And we talked about the Lord's death often, but also his life if you go down to verse 17, what does he say?
22:07: It was here in this verse that Luther said he hated God Because he thought it said for in it the righteousness of God is revealed and that's all it said and God's righteous
22:18: He expects you to do right things all the time and Luther's like I don't do right things all the time
22:25: And if that's what God expects, I can't do this But what God also does he not only says I desire right things all the time
22:32: But I give righteousness to people. It's not righteousness only of God but from God in other words the
22:39: Lord Jesus Christ the reason he came to earth and Die on the cross was to bear our sins, but he also came to earth to live in complete obedience to the law earning our righteousness and So God sees us in Christ as if we've never committed any sin and God sees us in Christ as if we've perfectly
23:00: Obeyed all the law of God and therefore we are righteous We sing about that When he shall come with trumpet sound.
23:08: Oh may I then in him be found dressed in his Righteousness alone faultless to stand before the throne
23:16: We love to sing together these lyrics. No condemnation now I dread
23:21: Jesus and all in him is mine alive in him my living head and clothed in righteousness divine
23:30: Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my I will glory in my
23:38: Redeemer Who crushed the power of sin and death my only Savior before the
23:43: Holy Judge the Lamb who is my? Righteousness question for why is the gospel powerful back down to verse 16?
23:54: The theme of Romans is Jesus Christ. He's the gospel We should be not ashamed of Jesus, but proud and thankful and confident
24:03: He is after all the eternal Son of God who added humanity To live for us and die for us and to be raised for us, but why is it powerful it says in verse 16
24:13: It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes Calvin said whenever the gospel is preached it is as if God himself came into the midst of us
24:28: Because through this message the power of God works It takes dead people and makes them alive
24:35: It takes people who were slaves to Satan and makes them slave to the triune God it can deal with hell
24:41: How powerful do you have to be to deal with hell we used to be? not
24:46: Abraham's children But the father of lies Satan was our father
24:52: Does it take a little bit of power to make us now children of the Living God? No, no it takes the omnipotent power of God and Paul says it's the power of God for salvation
25:03: We were condemned now. We're saved. It's effectual power. It's sovereign power It always does its work, and you might look at Jesus on that cross and go you know what no power
25:15: He can't save himself come down now. You can't even save yourself. We'll believe you if you come down now
25:21: It doesn't look like power, but it is power. I love the
25:28: Spurgeon story when he said There was a preacher named mr. Haslam And he was preaching a sermon that he did not understand
25:39: Homiletically that's a bad thing to do right at the start and while he preached it
25:47: He got converted by his own words from the Bible He spoke so that a
25:56: Methodist in the congregation called out, which is pretty rare for Methodist to shout out Pentecostals. Yeah, maybe
26:02: Baptist okay the Methodist in the congregation called out the parson the pastors converted the pastors converted and so Spurgeon said the parson was he owned it and praised
26:13: God for it And then all the people sang praise God from whom all blessings flow You want to know one of the great side benefits of the gospel being the power of God's for salvation?
26:27: It's so powerful that it can even go through sinful frail people like me or like you when you evangelize your friends or your daughters
26:34: And your sons are your spouses or whoever else I am
26:39: NOT Handicapping the gospel because I'm sinful and frail and fallible because I'm not preaching myself
26:47: I'm preaching the objective person and work of the risen Savior who is a real man the
26:52: God man The message is about Jesus. There's no assault that can triumph over it. Not hell not sin not death not even my own sin
27:02: Calvin said those who think that the authority of the doctrine is impaired by the insignificance of the men who are called to teach betray their ingratitude
27:11: The gospel is powerful because it makes people born again It forgives it redeems it reconciles question five
27:21: How do you receive the good news? I? Mean it's true whether you believe it or not, but how do you personally receive it?
27:29: notice in verse 16 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes
27:37: Verse 17 revealed from faith for faith as it is written the just shall live by faith
27:46: The means of receiving the gospel isn't the gospel, but it is the way you receive the gospel and it is by faith alone
27:55: Count how many times? Galatians 2 16 says you're not justified by works
28:01: Yet we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law because by the works of the law no one will be justified and Three times here through faith in Jesus have believed in Christ in order to be justified by faith in Christ The way you receive this good news
28:30: It's by faith Not faith in baptism not faith in works not by faith in being good, but faith alone
28:40: Heidelberg catechism not that I am acceptable to God on the account of the worthiness of my faith
28:46: But because only the satisfaction righteousness and holiness of Christ is my righteousness before God Remember here when we talk about saving faith.
28:56: It's not just data It's knowledge ascent and trust you have to know about Jesus and by the way you all do now
29:04: It's a scent and I didn't say a scent like climbing up That's what the world thinks of as Christianity climbing up to God I sent like I agree or I confirm that in my mind and then trust
29:19: It doesn't say knowledge ascent and obedience knowledge ascent and surrender knowledge ascent, and I'm trying harder
29:27: Some kind of volitional will no no it's knowledge ascent and trust a resting a receiving relying trust
29:37: If you look at the end there are the middle rather of verse 17 revealed from faith for faith
29:45: People argue about what that means. I think it's pretty simple It's faith and nothing, but faith.
29:52: It's only faith that can put you in a right relationship of God with God The just shall live by faith skip down in chapter 3.
29:59: It's just a theme for Paul 328 Romans 328 for we maintain that a man is justified by faith
30:05: Just so you don't think there's anything added apart from the works of the law You say well
30:13: Then maybe faith is like a work because I have to do something you have to rid that out of your mind because the only
30:18: Works that God accepts are perfect works and my faith isn't perfect is yours
30:25: That's a rhetorical question No, no I nothing I do can be perfect. I'm a sinner saved by grace, but I'm still sinful so faith receives
30:37: Faith isn't the cause of salvation The cause of salvation is Jesus my faith didn't die for my sins my faith wasn't raised from the dead my faith
30:46: Isn't gonna come back to judge the living in the dead my faith wasn't incarnate my faith Wasn't you know in the womb of the of the
30:52: Virgin Mary? No? No my faith receives. That's why it says resting It means I have no work
30:58: It means I can't do anything I renounce everything in myself in terms of what I might contribute and I realize the only way
31:04: I can receive this good news is by believing it And if I said to you, you know war is over It's true
31:15: But I have to believe it No man comes to me. Jesus said except the Father who sent me draws him
31:23: If you have had faith in the Lord Jesus just because the Father has drawn you and given you the gift of faith
31:28: But God doesn't believe for you. You must believe You're saved through faith not because of faith you're saved because of the love of God in Christ Jesus How do you get connected to God as it were?
31:42: It's through faith, and that's how you receive the Savior the
31:48: Lord Jesus Christ by faith I Mean what's your other option if you want to go to heaven? Go to chapter 2 verse 13 if you're here today, and you're not trusting in the
31:57: Lord Jesus You're not believing in him. You're putting it off. You don't think you want to do it You don't think you're so sinful you're gonna hold out for Judgment Day and maybe withstand everything
32:08: If you don't want to believe this is your only other option Romans 2 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God But the doers of the law will be justified
32:21: And I have my question for you, how are you doing? It takes one sin to be undone
32:29: Curse it as anyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law Deuteronomy 27
32:37: There's no way you can get to heaven by law keeping and if you could why did the Lord Jesus have to come and die?
32:43: You should have just come and been like a good moral example or said try harder Chapter 3 we see the litany of God the
32:53: Holy Spirit through the writer Paul Pressing people so that the every unbeliever including any unbeliever here today would say you know what uncle
33:01: I give up I am sinful. I do deserve to go to hell. There is a God who created me What then urge we
33:09: Jews any better off no not at all I've already been charged that all both Jews and Greeks are under sin as it is written
33:15: And this goes for every person in this congregation starting with me none is right righteous
33:23: Well, what about? No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.
33:29: That's why he has to come and save That's why Jesus has to come and seek and save those that are lost all have turned aside together.
33:35: They've become worthless No one does good not even one. This is my resume God. Let me into heaven
33:44: Summarize in verse 18. There's no fear of God before their eyes What's the law supposed to do to people so they'll realize they need a
33:53: Savior? Verse 19 Now we know that whatever the law says
34:00: It speaks to those who are under the law So that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be accountable to God.
34:11: We preach the law to unbelievers until they say I Have no more excuses
34:17: You're right. No defense. No exoneration. I am guilty as charged
34:25: He's seen every crime and sin that I've ever committed I Needed a defense lawyer. I'm standing before the judge.
34:32: The charges are being read and I can't say a word I just have to keep my mouth shut Lloyd -jones you do not begin to be a
34:41: Christian until your mouth is shut And you're speechless and have nothing to say you put up arguments and produce all your righteousness
34:48: Then the law speaks and it withers to nothing all withers all to nothing you have nothing to say
34:55: Verse 20 because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
35:03: That's why it has to be faith. I Stop and ask you the question
35:09: Do you believe? Are you believing? Well, I you know,
35:14: I was baptized as a kid that's not my question are you believing Believe on the
35:20: Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved Jesus came To die to live to be raised and your response is later.
35:33: I'll deal with that later question six Do we have different Gospels for different people?
35:44: It says in verse 16 I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes Romans 1 16 to the
35:51: Jew first and also to the Greek I Mean if you just think precedent
35:58: Historically, let's preach to the Jews first and then to everyone else, but it was the same gospel Say well,
36:03: I need a different gospel, you know, if you were to ask me this question I don't think you would but let's say you would pastor
36:09: Mike. What's Bethlehem Bible Church's plan to win over the Millennials What's the plan to get like the
36:17: Gen Xers and remember yuppies back in the day what's your plan to get people like Multi -ethnic social differences oppressed people all these people.
36:27: What's your plan for all that? You want to know something? I've been to three seminaries and taught at four. I have no plans for any of that You're like, well it shows
36:36: It doesn't show you know what it shows People here from every tribe and tongue old and young because they want to come in here about the resurrected
36:44: God, man I don't have a different thing. You think well Rome Paul goes into Rome Infanticide homosexuality incest divorce rape slavery
36:57: Economic injustices galore and what does Paul say? The answer is in verse 15.
37:04: I'm eager to preach the gospel
37:10: I'm gonna talk to you about Jesus to you who are in Rome If someone comes to you and gives me a modifier for the gospel like social gospel feminist gospel oppressed gospel liberation gospel
37:26: Marxist gospel black liberation gospel the list could go on and on and on and on They're just adding a lot of the gospel and they're minimizing the power of God This is for every city every country people write books redeeming the city
37:44: You don't need to write that what was Paul's strategy for redeeming the city, by the way
37:50: The person that wrote redeeming the city regarding New York City. I've been there after the 82 million dollars have been sent been spent
37:55: It's not redeemed I'm not after to redeem a culture. We have one mandate and that mandate is not a cultural mandate
38:05: It's the Great Commission And when you have two mandates Always the cultural mandate will eclipse the main mandate and that's to preach the gospel
38:14: It can't be done. We cannot do that. We cannot move Say well, there's all kinds of issues in the world, but there's only one
38:22: Great Commission And by the way, we can solve AIDS kovat terrorism
38:28: Isis poverty Social strife we could solve it all and every person's still going to die and go straight to hell
38:37: That's why they need the good news does anybody have any good news for me
38:45: Can anybody tell me and can you imagine if you get this good news, right by the spirits illuminating power received by faith alone
38:54: Every other problem by the way is put into perspective. Is it not I Have health problems.
39:00: I have money problems. I have these problems I have those problems the world has those problems But guess how I see all those problems through the lens of I'm going to heaven.
39:09: I am forgiven I can see things through the mind of God and I understand what's the top priority and the top priority of the church is not
39:17: Culture. I want listeners to the gospel to be turned from darkness to light not to go from Democrat to Republican or vice versa,
39:31: I Will not along with the three other elders waste our time
39:39: With things that we're not supposed to be doing if you personally would like to go out and do things for people
39:44: Fine, that's you the Christian, but that's not the church's mandate David Wells said we have to be governed by sola scriptura not sola cultura culture alone
39:57: I'm so happy to add new solas I have all these solas right at the baseline sola scriptura and the center
40:04: Christ alone faith alone grace alone to God's glory alone not our own bootstraps alone sola bootstraps a
40:13: Home school home school a solo home school alone and now sola cultura By the way, we're we're big homeschoolers here.
40:21: Do as you please I have a message for the people in the culture and if you're a
40:34: Buddhist Hindu Confucius Follower or anybody else? Here's the message It's about a
40:41: Jew who walked on water Forgave sins number seven.
40:50: What are the results of the gospel? What are the results of the gospel well just to say this Quickly the results of the gospel are good works
41:00: The fruit of the gospel in your life is good works You're saved by faith alone and that faith won't be alone
41:07: Luther said works are not taken into consideration with the question respects justification But true faith will no more fail to produce them than the
41:16: Sun can cease to give light. I Have faith in the risen Savior alone And Where do good works come into play?
41:24: Well, God doesn't need those because they're tainted. I can't offer any good works to God I have to be saved by faith alone, but my tainted good works can be good for someone else.
41:34: Can they not other people? That's the evidence of salvation the fruit of salvation
41:41: Question eight. What if people reject the gospel? What if somebody here says I don't want the gospel I don't want anything to do with it.
41:48: You're bigoted narrow -minded. I have other things going on. I reject the gospel Here's what happens to people who reject the good news
41:57: And then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it From his presence earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them
42:05: And I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne and the books were opened Then another book was open which is the book of the life and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done and The sea gave up the dead who were in it death and Hades gave up the dead who are in them and they were judged each one of them according to what they had done
42:28: Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire This is the second death the lake of fire and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life
42:38: He was thrown into the lake of fire last question question 9
42:47: Does the gospel? motivate Believers, I mean it's good for unbelievers.
42:52: What about believers? Let's go to the very end of this book book of Romans It has book ends chapter 1 is the gospel and now chapter 16
43:01: It's the gospel and it's the gospel about who Jesus is up front how Paul's not going to be ashamed He's preaching it to everyone because you can't get to heaven by being good
43:09: And now we end with the gospel and it strengthens and motivates We're not people who say
43:15: I've got that already. I'm done with the whole Jesus thing I accepted in my heart. I signed the card.
43:20: I came up to the front. I'm a born -again Christian now Tell me how to get through the workweek That's not what we do
43:27: He starts with it and he ends with it because the ending is for Christians And did you know
43:33: Jesus died for the sins of Christians to what motivates us law doesn't motivate
43:39: There's no animating power to law. Just do it. Just do it. Just do it Romans 16 25
43:49: Now to him who is able to strengthen that's where we get our word steroid How do
43:57: I strengthen Christians? What do Christians need try harder do more? I can't believe you're doing that I mean the bane of Scolding preaching is because they don't understand how the gospel motivates show me a scolder
44:10: And by the way, I can identify with them because I think probably I scolded you for too many years Scholars don't understand that it's the free grace of who
44:23: God is in Christ that motivates you to want to obey It gives you long -term obedience
44:29: And if you just get up and whack people over and over and over Paul Washer like whacking whacking whacking
44:35: He doesn't understand this At least functionally it doesn't come out He's able to strengthen you.
44:41: Don't you need strength Christian? I I see some of you when I look up you're struggling with health and issues in your marriage
44:48: How to work with a good attitude how to get along with your neighbor what about that kid that's kind of you know
44:55: Backsliding. What do you do as a parent you wake up and you're in over your head and it's only 615 in the morning I mean I need help
45:02: I'm hurting what strengthens a Christian stiff upper lip
45:08: Try harder. I expected more out of you. That's not
45:14: Paul for those that are here that are weak physically or emotionally
45:20: Physically or spiritually This is a praise a doxology doxology to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel
45:31: That's where the power comes. The law guides us, but the power the motivation is through who
45:36: Jesus is. He's my Savior According to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages
45:43: But now has been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations including to people in West Boylston, Massachusetts According to the command of the
45:54: Eternal God go out there and preach this gospel To bring about the obedience of faith.
46:00: You must believe that's the obedience of faith To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ Amen God I need aid
46:11: I need strength. I need to help I need an Almighty to help me because I've got a lot of mighties in my life that seem to drag me down.
46:20: I Need to be established. I need to say, you know what? I need to know how to say no to sin better and yes to righteousness more
46:28: I'd like to be stronger when it comes to temptations and and more stable Persecution is coming.
46:34: I need courage I Not like Paul who says I'm not ashamed of the gospel because I kind of am around some of my family
46:41: I need to have my heart Settled down. I need to have steadfastness in my mind
46:51: I need to have something in my spirit that though my body's decaying I could still be strong on the inside Hebrew says it's a good thing that the heart be established with grace
47:05: And it's a better thing that the heart is established by your
47:10: Savior Who loved you he came to die for you. He came to live for you.
47:16: His promises are true Walter Walter Marshall, you cannot love
47:31: God if you were under the continual secret suspicion that he's really your enemy You know why pastors do that?
47:38: Because if you understand free grace, you just might go crazy No, if you understand free grace
47:45: God Doesn't hate Christians, he doesn't condemn Christians, even though this last week
47:51: I've done all kinds of things that probably could deserve his hatred. I have no slavish fear
47:57: God loves me with an everlasting love and he's not mad at me. We're on good terms He cannot even love me more because I'm in the
48:05: Lord Jesus Christ Every night when
48:10: I would put the kids to bed I would go over And I would sing them a song as I would just kind of rub their stomachs and chest
48:18: Kind of firmly like daddy's here and I would start singing. Oh how he loves you and me.
48:25: Oh How he loves you and me he gave his life. What more could he give?
48:47: Father how could we not respond
48:54: Wanting to honor you with obedience After what you've done for us What the
49:01: Lord Jesus has done and is doing for us and the Holy Spirit as well For people that are here today who are
49:09: Christians May this be the message that they preach to their friends. May this be the message that they
49:17: Rejoice in and for those that are here today who are not Christians, you know that they're not
49:23: They might fool everybody, but they're not fooling you. Would you grant them saving faith today?
49:28: That they might see their sins properly and look to the God of grace who loves to save sinners just like them