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Well, this morning, I'm
thinking about John Payton.
And out of all my 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.
Payton said this, For the first time, the Dorca Street Sabbath School teacher's
gift from South Melbourne Presbyterian Church was put to use.
A new communion service of silver.
They gave it in faith that we would require it.
And in such we received it.
And now the day had come and gone.
For three years we have toiled and prayed and taught for this.
At the moment when I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of
cannibalism, but now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals
of the Redeemer's love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well
nigh broke my heart to pieces.
I shall never taste a deeper bliss till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus
Himself.
Amazing.
How did that happen?
What kind of techniques did John Payton use?
What was the method that transformed that island?
To use modern terminology, was it the church growth programs of maybe 40 days of purpose?
Maybe everybody walked around with WWJD bracelets on?
Maybe they all had Redeeming the Jungle philosophy written books by people in big cities?
What about Bill Gothard's Institutes?
Maybe they all had Promise Keepers thoughts?
Or maybe the shack?
Or, I don't know, the Weigh Down Workshop?
I think the lady just died who came up with that non -trinitarian deal a few years ago.
But anyway, I'm beside the point.
What changes a heart?
What changes a city?
What changes a country?
I'm glad you asked.
Please turn your Bibles to Romans 1.
At this church, we have 52 special Sundays a year.
And they're all called the 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 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 Heavenly Father.
What changes a city, a jungle, a rural area, an urban environment, or a human soul?
The answer is our favorite subject at this church, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
From one of my favorite books of the Bible, the book of Romans.
2 Peter is done, and I had one more sermon before I go on an extended vacation this week.
And I thought, if I could pick any passage, any sermon, any subject, any person, what
would I preach?
I've got one shot.
I hope I come back.
I'm planning on coming back.
Remember, the first pastor of Bethlehem Bible Church went on vacation and never came back.
That's true, right, 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.
I had my blood test a couple weeks ago from the cancer a few years ago.
Everything's come back in good shape.
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 one Sunday for one congregation today.
It's about Jesus Christ and his great gospel.
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.
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 Sunday nights ago.
So if you have heard that sermon, great, you get another one.
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 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 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.
For the more it is studied, the easier it is.
The more it is chewed, the pleasanter it is.
The more groundly it is searched, the preciouser things are found in it.
So great treasures of spiritual things lieth hid therein.
And of course, the book of Romans is not just a logical treatise.
It's not just a systematic treatise.
It's not just this lawyer who's articulating certain thoughts.
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 inscrutable His ways.
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Who has been His counselor?
Who has given Him a gift that He might be repaid?
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever.
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 congregation.
What was it?
Righteousness.
That's right.
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,
how His righteousness is vindicated and then applied.
So what we're going to do this morning is 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, 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.
If this is the only thing I've ever taught you, then I can die in peace.
Question number one.
What is the theme of Romans in terms of which verses are the themes?
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, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians,
Galatians, Ephesians, all of the corpus of Paul.
This is the theme of Paul.
I sent one of the Lord Jesus, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, a very familiar verse, for it is the
power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for
faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
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.
Question number two.
What should your attitude be regarding the gospel?
What should your attitude be regarding this gospel?
What does Paul say?
Paul, I think, models for us our attitude or what our attitude should be.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel.
Dear friend, you know that the world hates Christianity.
It's too exclusive.
It is not 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,
they don't want to have anything to do with this gospel.
But for Paul, what does it say?
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.
Does anybody know what the figure of speech is here?
It's a Leitotes.
And it looks like L -I -totes, but it's pronounced Leitotes.
L -I -T -O -T -E -S.
And what does a Leitotes do?
Well, it makes the Bible say this.
You know what?
I'm going to state something in a negative way to posit something that's positive.
I'm going to say something in the negative side, but I'm really after the positive side.
If I'm not ashamed of the gospel, then 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, but I'm not embarrassed by the gospel at all.
And Paul, when he got to a city, he did two things.
Remember?
He said, where's the synagogue?
I've got to go there and preach Christ Jesus from the Old Testament.
And where's the jail?
Because I'll be there next.
Right?
And so Paul was laughed at.
He was scorned.
He was stoned.
He was thrown in prison for this truth, this singular truth, this good news.
And Paul said, you know, I'm not ashamed.
I'm excited.
I'm confident about this message.
B .B. Warfield, a dozen ignorant peasants proclaiming a crucified Jew as the founder of a new faith.
Bearing as the symbol of their worship an instrument which was the sign of slavery and
crime.
Preaching what must have seemed an absurd doctrine of humility and love to enemies.
Grace is undreamed of.
Demanding that one must have seemed an absurd worship for the one who
died like a malefactor and slave.
And Paul said, I'm not ashamed.
I have no reluctance to talk about this topic.
This one, the Lord Jesus.
I'll stand up for it.
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 COVID.
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.
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?
Oh, they're eating the Lord's body and they're drinking his blood.
Those people are cannibals.
They have love feasts, you know, they have all kinds of sexual parties, something called love feast.
This is a religion mocked and scorned and ridiculed.
And Paul said, I die for this gospel.
I die for the Lord Jesus.
I'm not ashamed.
I'm proud.
I know congregation, you're bold, but we all have that tendency.
You're by the water cooler.
You're in the office.
Remember offices?
We used to go to offices.
Oh, you're a 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, what actually is the gospel?
He says right there in verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
True or false, 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
Bible?
He basically stole it from medieval times.
God will not deny His grace to those who do what lies within their power.
That's not the gospel.
That's not good news.
Be like Jesus isn't good news.
Feed the poor isn't good news.
Get baptized with the Holy Spirit, that's not the gospel.
Speak in tongues, 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, 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 TED Talk with the Bible.
Moral, ethical things to be good, to be nice, to serve the community.
That's what they think it's about.
And sadly, many pastors across this land and world feed that.
I wonder if somebody asked you, they said, I'd like to go to church with you on Sunday.
What should I expect?
What do you tell them?
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.
We'll sing some songs about Jesus.
We'll hear some scripture reading, all pointing to Jesus, as Pastor Steve showed us this morning, even in 1 Samuel 2.
And there's going to be a sermon extolling the person and work of Jesus Christ, the risen 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 we won't get a Father's Day message.
I'm positive about that.
Mother's Day messages, you know, mothers are so great.
Father's Day messages, fathers get on the stick.
Why is that?
The Gospel means good news, glad tidings.
Something you say on tiptoes.
Something you say that's wonderful.
It's a statement of fact.
War's over.
Germany destroyed.
The word Gospel means good, merry, glad, joyful tidings,
Tyndale said, that makes a man's heart glad and makes him sing, dance, and leap for joy.
And when Paul starts off this letter, he tells us a little bit about this wonderful Gospel.
You see it in verse 1 of chapter 1.
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart
for the Gospel of God.
One of the first things I notice about the Gospel, if I were to define it, I would say it's not our Gospel.
It's God's Gospel.
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, I've got a Gospel for you.
The emperor has had a child.
It's good news.
But this is not about the emperor's child.
This is about God the Son.
When I say Gospel, I hope you regularly say Jesus.
This is all about Jesus.
Verse 2, is it new?
I mean, it's news, but is it new news?
No, the Gospel's good news, but it has its anchors in the Old Testament.
Romans 1 -2, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scripture.
See, I don't really need the Old Testament.
I just have my, you know, my New Testament.
That's all I need.
Everything, even as we heard last Sunday night in Genesis 3 -15, this first Gospel and how
the seed of the woman's going to crush the head of Satan.
And you think of all the types in the Old Testament.
Sacrifices pointing to the God -man Jesus.
The kings and the priests and the prophets pointing to the Lord Jesus.
Fulfillment found in the New Testament.
It's good news, but it's not new news.
Luther said, Christianity did not originate by accident or in the fate of the stars.
And I love Luther.
He should be on Twitter.
As many empty -headed people presume.
And even verse 17, do you see it?
There's no break with the Old Testament.
Paul is quoting Habakkuk 2 -4.
The righteous shall live by faith.
The Old Testament brazen serpent put up on the stick.
We're pointing to who this person is ultimately in consummation.
The 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 they, the Old Testament, that bear witness about me.
Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
What is the Gospel?
It's about a person that was talked about in the Old Testament and new.
And look at verse 3.
He's truly man.
He's perfectly man.
Concerning this Son, this eternal Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh.
Here we have the eternal Son of God adds human flesh.
He's in the Davidic line.
The incarnation of Jesus.
In the beginning was the Word.
And now the Word has become flesh.
He's conceived in the womb of the Holy, in the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit's power.
As one confession said, without male participation.
And not only that, He's not just truly man to be our mediator, to be our representative.
He, Jesus, in verse 4, is the eternal God.
He's always been the eternal Son of God.
But if you'd like to know the highlight, the defining moment, the climax to it all, 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 was marked out.
That's where we get the word horizon.
Where we see the sky and the earth.
There's a demarcation, a dividing line.
He's declared to be the Son of God.
He's always been, but we're going to declare with shouts of praise, He's in power
according to the Spirit of holiness, by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our
Lord.
The Gospel is about God.
It was back in the Old Testament.
It's about the perfect man, who's also the perfect God.
And if somebody says, I've got a Gospel to give you, and they're not talking about what historically happened at
Calvary, in Jerusalem, eternity past, and the counsel of the Father, the Son, and 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 Gospels.
And so what you need to do, is you need to be the fifth Gospel.
British evangelist, Rodney Gypsy Smith said, there are five Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Christian.
But most people have never read the first four.
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 Mike Abendroth.
That's good news.
That time that you saw me say something to my wife, or were saying
something to my kids harshly.
The Gospel is about who 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.
Behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, for unto you this day is born in the city of David, a
Savior who is Christ the Lord.
Jesus is the Gospel.
And Jesus gives, forgives, justifies, redeems, declares, promises,
comes into the world to save sinners, and bestows grace upon people, because
He's good and kind.
Jesus the Gospel encourages and comforts and assures and bestows and offers.
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.
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 that you've ever committed washed away freely, pardoned.
There's an old writer, his name's Caspar Olivianus.
And I love to call him Caspar the Friendly Olivianus, just to be reminded.
My wife grew up in a pretty strict brethren home.
She was not allowed to watch Bewitched, or probably she wasn't allowed to watch Caspar the Friendly Ghost, but she was
probably allowed to read Caspar the Friendly Olivianus.
The Gospel or the good news that delights the heart of the poor condemned sinner is a revelation of the
fatherly and immutable will of God in which He promised us, who are unworthy,
that all our sins have been washed away and pardoned, not just for the rest of our lives,
but indeed forever.
He carries out this promise by giving His Son to die for us and by raising Him.
And we talk about the Lord's death often, but also His life if you go down to verse 17.
What does He say?
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.
He expects you to do right things all the time.
And Luther's like, I don't do right things all the time, 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, but I give
righteousness to people.
It's not righteousness only of God, but from God.
In other words, the 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 obeyed all the law of God, and therefore we are righteous.
We sing about that.
When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found,.
Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.
We love to sing together these lyrics.
No condemnation now I dread, Jesus and all in Him is mine.
Alive in Him my living head, And clothed in righteousness divine.
Bold I approach the eternal throne, And claim the crown through Christ my own.
I will glory in my Redeemer, Who crushed the power of sin and death.
My only Savior before the Holy Judge, The Lamb who is my righteousness.
Question four.
Why is the gospel powerful?
Back down to verse 16.
The theme of Romans is Jesus Christ.
He's the gospel.
We should be not ashamed of Jesus, but proud and thankful and confident.
He is after all the eternal Son of God who added humanity to live for us and die for us and be raised for us.
But why is it powerful?
It says in verse 16, 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.
Because through this message, the power of God works.
It takes dead people and makes them alive.
It takes people who are slaves to Satan and makes them slaves to the triune God.
It can deal with hell.
How powerful do you have to be to deal with hell?
We used to be not Abraham's children, but the father of
lies, Satan was our father.
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 our salvation.
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.
He can't save Himself.
Come down now.
You can't even save yourself.
We'll believe you if you come down now.
It doesn't look like power, but it is power.
I love Spurgeon's story when he said there was a preacher named Mr. Haslam
and he was preaching a sermon that he did not understand.
Homiletically, that's a bad thing to do right at the start.
And while he preached it, he got converted by his own words from the
Bible.
He spoke so that a Methodist in the congregation called out, which is pretty rare for Methodists to shout out.
Pentecostals, yeah, maybe.
Baptists, okay.
The Methodist in the congregation called out the parson, the pastor's converted.
The pastor's converted.
And so, Spurgeon said, the parson was.
He owned it and praised 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 for salvation?
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 and your sons or your spouses or whoever else.
I am not handicapping the Gospel because I'm sinful and frail and fallible
because I'm not preaching myself.
I'm preaching the objective person and work of the risen Savior who is a real man, the 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.
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.
The Gospel is powerful because it makes people born again.
It forgives, it redeems, it reconciles.
Question 5.
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?
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.
Verse 17.
Revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
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.
Count how many times Galatians 2 .16 says you're not justified by works.
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
The way you receive this good news is by faith.
Not faith in baptism, not faith in works, not by faith in being good, but faith alone.
Heidelberg Catechism, not that I am acceptable to God on the account of the worthiness of my faith,
but because only the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ is my righteousness before God.
Remember here when we talk about saving faith, it's not just data, it's knowledge, assent, and trust.
You have to know about Jesus, and by the way, you all do now.
It's assent, and I didn't say ascent like climbing up.
That's what the world thinks of as Christianity, climbing up to God.
Ascent like I agree, or I confirm that in my mind.
And then trust.
It doesn't say knowledge, assent, and obedience.
Knowledge, assent, and surrender.
Knowledge, assent, and I'm trying harder.
Some kind of volitional will.
No, no, it's knowledge, assent, and trust.
A resting, a receiving, a relying.
Trust.
If you look at the end there, or the middle rather of verse 17, revealed
from faith for faith, people argue about what that means.
I think it's pretty simple.
It's faith and nothing but faith.
It's only faith that can put you in a right relationship with God.
The just shall live by faith.
Skip down to chapter 3.
It's just a theme for Paul.
Romans 3 .28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith, just so you don't think there's anything added
apart from the works of the law.
You say, well, 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 works that God accepts are perfect works.
And my faith isn't perfect.
Is yours?
That's a rhetorical question.
No, no, nothing I do can be perfect.
I'm a sinner saved by grace, but I'm still sinful.
So faith receives.
Faith isn't the cause of salvation.
The cause of salvation is Jesus.
My faith didn't die from my sins.
My faith wasn't raised from the dead.
My faith isn't going to come back to judge the living and the dead.
My faith wasn't incarnate.
My faith wasn't in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
No, no, my faith receives.
That's why it says resting.
It means I have no work.
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 I can receive this good
news is by believing it.
And if I said to you, you know, war is over, it's true, but I
have to believe it.
No man comes to me, Jesus said, except the Father who sent me draws him.
If you have had faith in the Lord Jesus, it's because the Father has drawn you and given you the gift of faith.
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?
It's through faith.
And that's how you receive the Savior, the 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 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 going to hold out for judgment day and maybe withstand
everything.
If you don't want to believe, this is your only other option, Romans 2, verse 13.
For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law
will be justified.
And I have my question for you.
How are you doing?
It takes one sin to be undone.
Curse it as anyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.
Deuteronomy 27.
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?
He should have just come and been like a good moral example or said, try harder.
Chapter 3.
We see the litany of God the Holy Spirit through the writer Paul,
pressing people so that every unbeliever, including any unbeliever here today, would say, you know what?
Uncle, I give up.
I am sinful.
I do deserve to go to hell.
There is a God who created me.
What then?
Are we Jews any better off?
No, not at all.
We've already been charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin as it is written.
And this goes for every person in this congregation, starting with me.
None is righteous.
Well, what about no, not one?
No one understands.
No one seeks for God.
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 they've become worthless.
No one does good, not even one.
This is my resume, God.
Let me into heaven.
Summarized 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 Savior?
Verse 19, now we know that whatever the law says, 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.
We preach the law to unbelievers until they say, I have no more excuses.
You're right.
No defense, no exoneration.
I am guilty as charged.
He's seen every crime and sin that I've ever committed.
I need a defense lawyer.
I'm standing before the judge.
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 Christian until your mouth is shut and you are speechless and have nothing
to say.
You put up arguments and produce all your righteousness.
Then the law speaks and it withers all to nothing.
Verse 18, you have nothing to say.
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.
That's why it has to be faith.
I stop and ask you the question, do you believe?
Are you believing?
Well, you know, I was baptized as a kid.
That's not my question.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Jesus came to die, to live, to be raised,
and your response is later?
I'll deal with that later.
Question six, do we have different Gospels for different people?
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 Jew first and also to the Greek.
I mean, if you just think precedent, historically, let's preach to the Jews first and then to everyone else.
But it was the same Gospel.
You say, well, 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 Mike, what's Bethlehem Bible Church's plan to win over the millennials?
What's the plan to get like the 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?
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.
It doesn't show.
You know what it shows?
People hear from every tribe and tongue, old and young, because they want to come and hear about the resurrected God -man.
I don't have a different thing.
You think, well, Rome.
Paul goes into Rome.
Infanticide, homosexuality, incest, divorce, rape,
slavery, economic injustices galore.
And what does Paul say?
The answer is in verse 15.
I'm eager to preach the Gospel.
I'm going to 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, Marxist Gospel,
black liberation Gospel, the list could go on and on and on and on.
They're just adding law to the Gospel and they're minimizing the power of God.
This is for every city, every country.
People write books redeeming the city.
You don't need to write that.
What was Paul's strategy for redeeming the city?
By the way, the person that wrote redeeming the city regarding New York City, I've been there after the $82 million that had been spent.
It's not redeemed.
I'm not after to redeem a culture.
We have one mandate and that mandate is not a cultural mandate.
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.
It can't be done.
We cannot do that.
We cannot move.
You say, well, there's all kinds of issues in the world but there's only one Great Commission.
And by the way, we can solve AIDS, COVID, terrorism, ISIS,
poverty, social strife.
We could solve it all and every person is still going to die and go straight to hell.
That's why they need the good news.
Does anybody have any good news for me?
Can anybody tell me?
And can you imagine, if you get this good news right by the Spirit's illuminating power received by faith
alone, every other problem, by the way, is put into perspective, is it not?
I have health problems.
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.
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 culture.
I want listeners to the Gospel to be turned from darkness to light.
Not to go from Democrat to Republican or vice versa.
I will not, along with the three other elders, waste our time
with things that we're not supposed to be doing.
If you personally would like to go out and do things for people, 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.
I'm so happy to add new solas.
We have all these solas, right?
At the baseline, sola scriptura.
In the center, Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, to God's glory alone.
Not our own bootstraps alone, sola bootstraps.
Homeschool, homeschula, sola homeschula alone, and now sola cultura.
By the way, we're big homeschoolers here.
Do as you please.
I have a message for the people in the culture, and if you're a Buddhist, Hindu, Confucius
follower, or anybody else, here's the message.
It's about a Jew who walked on water and forgave sins.
Number seven, 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.
The fruit of the gospel in your life is good works.
You're saved by faith alone, and that faith won't be alone.
Luther said works are not taken into consideration when the question respects justification, but true faith will no
more fail to produce them than the sun can cease to give light.
I have faith in the risen Savior alone, and where do good works come into play?
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, can they not?
Other people.
That's the evidence of salvation, the fruit of salvation.
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, 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.
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.
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were opened.
Then another book was opened, 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 were in them, and they were judged,
each one of them, according to what they had done.
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, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Last question, question nine.
Does the gospel motivate believers?
I mean, it's good for unbelievers.
What about believers?
Let's go to the very end of this book, book of Romans.
It has book ends, chapter one is the gospel, and now chapter 16 is 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, and now we end with the gospel and it strengthens and motivates.
We're not people who say, I've got that already, I'm done with the whole Jesus thing, I accept it in my heart, I
signed the card, I came up to the front, I'm a born again Christian, now tell me how to get through the work week.
That's not what we do.
He starts with it and he ends with it, because the ending is for Christians, and did you know Jesus died for the sins
of Christians too?
What motivates us?
Law doesn't motivate, there's no animating power to law, just do it, just do it, just do it.
Romans 16, 25.
Now to him who is able to strengthen, that's where we get our word steroid.
How do 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, and by the way, I can identify with them because I think probably I scolded you for too many years.
Scolders don't understand that it's the free grace of who God is in Christ that motivates you to want to obey.
It gives you long -term obedience.
And if you just get up and whack people over and over and over, Paul Washer -like, whacking, whacking, whacking,
he doesn't understand this.
At least functionally it doesn't come out.
He's able to strengthen you, but don't you need strength, Christian?
I see some of you when I look up, you're struggling with health and issues in your marriage, how to work with
a good attitude, how to get along with your neighbor.
What about that kid that's kind of backsliding?
What do you do as a parent?
You wake up and you're in over your head and it's only 6 .15 in the morning.
I mean, I need help.
I'm hurting.
What strengthens a Christian?
Stiff upper lip.
Try harder.
I expected more out of you.
That's not Paul.
For those that are here that are weak, physically or emotionally, physically or spiritually,
this is a praise, a doxology to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my
Gospel.
That's where the power comes.
The law guides us, but the power, the motivation is through who Jesus is.
He's my Savior.
According to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, 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 eternal God, go out there and preach this Gospel to bring about the
obedience of faith.
That's the obedience of faith.
To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ.
God, I need aid.
I need strength.
I need 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.
I need to be established.
I need to know how to say no to sin better and yes to righteousness more.
I'd like to be stronger when it comes to temptations and more stable.
Persecution is coming.
I need courage.
I'm not like Paul who says I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because I kind of am around some of my family.
I need to have my heart settled down.
I need to have steadfastness in my mind.
I need to have something in my spirit that though my body is decaying, I can still be strong on the inside.
Hebrews says it's a good thing that the heart be established with grace.
And it's a better thing that the heart is established by your Savior
who loved you.
He came to die for you.
He came to live for you.
His promises are true.
Walter Marshall, you cannot love God if you were under the continual secret suspicion that He's really your enemy.
You know why pastors do that?
Because if you understand free grace, you just might go crazy.
No, if you understand free grace, God doesn't hate Christians.
He doesn't condemn Christians.
Even though this last week I've done all kinds of things that probably could deserve His hatred, I have no slavish fear.
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 Lord Jesus Christ.
Every night when 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 chests kind of firmly like Daddy's here.
And I would start singing, Oh, how He loves you and me.
Oh, how He loves you and me.
He gave His life.
What more could He give?
Oh, how He loves me.
Oh, how He loves you.
Father, how could we not respond wanting to honor you with obedience after
what you've done for us?
What the Lord Jesus has done and is doing for us and the Holy Spirit as well.
For people that are here today who are Christians, may this be the message that they preach to their
friends.
May this be the message that they rejoice in.
And for those that are here today who are not Christians, you know that they're not.
They might fool everybody, but they're not fooling you.
Would you grant them saving faith today that they might see their sins properly and look to the
God of grace who loves to save sinners just like them.
I pray this in Jesus' name.