Romans and Evangelism 101 (Part 3)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth. It is, in real time, August 28th, Wednesday, 134 p .m. What I�ve been doing these days is, since I have a full-time job, a day job, and I want NOCO to take over that and intrude into that, I prepare sermons, and then I try them out on you because then it�s helped me prepare for how I deliver them on Sunday.

I listen to myself, and I say to myself, �Self, that didn�t sound so good. That didn�t go off so well. That didn�t sound so good, now does it Actually, it�s very interesting. If I had to tell sermons, sermon preparers, I can�t tell sermons much, what�s a good way to review your sermon is to give it out loud.

I used to do that here at the church on Saturdays, sometimes up in the pulpit, sometimes Fridays at the pulpit, sometimes just on top of a file cabinet that was about pulpit size if people were in the sanctuary, and I would go ahead and preach the sermon so I could hear it.

Actually, what�s better than that is something like this because I have headphones on and I can actually hear it with a louder volume, with a volume that sounds probably more like it would sound to the congregation than in your own head.

You know your own voice and you�re like, �Oh, is that what I sound like Which is kind of a weird thing, isn�t it? What kind of it must be a theory, it must be a principle, it must be something in the world where there�s a description on what you sound like to other people and what you sound like to yourself.

Why do we sound different to ourselves? Is that because it�s going through our own brains, our own, I don�t know, are we hearing what our ears hear but also simultaneously kind of our nose and our mouth and I don�t know what I�m talking about.

Info at nocompromisedradio .com. If you�re a Patreon giver, would you email me, mike at nocompromisedradio .com, tell me your name, how much you give a month, and I�m trying to fill a database that I can�t seem to fill.

And I would appreciate that because if I owe you books and other things that you�ve seen on this website that says you get, I want to keep my word. So that�s that. We�re talking about Romans, evangelism, in the old days it was the Romans Road, and you go to 1 .16 .17, 3 .23, 6 .24, 10 .9, 10 .10, 10 .13, 12 .1, and 2.

I don�t know what people would do, but they would have this kind of a thread or Romans Road for evangelism, you know, admit, believe, confess, there�s lots of different ways to try to teach people, ask people, do you consider yourself to be a good person?

What I�m trying to do is, I�m just trying to flesh that out a little bit in the book of Romans, because I love Romans, and I�d like to tell our congregation before we get back into Hebrews, the message that has high priority in their life as they want to tell others that message.

The Four Ws for Evangelism from Romans

So we have four Ws, who is God, W number two, who is man, W number three, what Christ did, W number four, what�s the response to what Christ did. Now there�s different ways you can go about it, I�m not saying this is the template, this is a template, and years ago when I read a stop book, Basic Christianity, he had four Ws in there, and I didn�t make any of these things up, but I actually came up with four Ws before I read the Stott thing.

So I was kind of happy that John R. W. Stott and M. L. Abendroth came up with some of the same things. The first description, because each of these Ws will have three descriptions, the first description is creator, that God is the one who creates and he�s to be forever praised.

And we looked at Romans 1 .25, people worship and serve the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever, amen. This great God who makes everything out of nothing also makes them. He makes you to honor him, to glorify him, to trust in him.

And this word back in Genesis 1 about he creates the heavens and the earth. That word to create is never used of anyone except God. And God creates new heavens and new earth, new heavens and the new earth.

He creates wind, he creates supernaturally, and suddenly he, the creator, has power and control and ownership and therefore creatures, you, me, everybody, ought to do what the creator says. Right? And specifically Jesus is the one who has an emphasis here in Colossians on his creative power.

For by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

And the him and the he is the Lord Jesus. You know that people don't want to talk about God as creator. They want to talk about the myth of creationism and they want to talk about evolution instead because they don't want to answer.

They don't want to obey. If God creates, then he also gives laws to his creatures. And people don't want to have anybody rule over them. Paul said in Acts, neither is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.

I mean, he gives, he sustains, he is self-sufficient. And he made from one, talking about Adam, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.

This is what God has done. And there's a response to this creative power, this creating creatures, humans, that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far off from each one of us.

For in him we live and move and exist as even some of our own prophets have said, for we are also his offspring. That is to say, God creates and therefore he sets up the laws of not just nature, not just of gravity, but God requires obedience.

This creator gives laws and you go back to the Garden of Eden and what God gave for these laws. And God says, do you see it in your Bibles in Romans chapter 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 we'll talk more about that when we get to the man side of this. But God sets up these laws and his law is to do, his law is to obey, his law is to keep the commandments and that's what he requires as creator.

Now we'll talk about a savior in a minute because we'll realize we can't do that, but as creator, this is what he has, a law. And that's the first thing we need to talk about when it comes to who God is, that he's the creator.

You look up in the sun and the moon and the stars and the world, and God made this with the world. He's impressive. That's impressive. I don't mean he is a that, but that's impressive that he could do that.

Secondly, think of the word judge. So you're going to evangelize someone, you want to reread Romans and you can go in any order you want, of course, but just to make it easy, four W's, who is God? He's creator.

And since that he's judge, Romans 2, 3, do you suppose, oh man, you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? See he's a judge. Number verse 12 rather, it's a number 12, yes, but verse 12 of the same chapter, Romans two, for all have sinned without law will also perish without the law.

And all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law, whether it's conscience, whether it's laws of nature and creation, whether it's mosaic law, God expects you to obey. On that day, Romans 2, 16, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of the men by Christ Jesus.

Chapter three, God is a judge. God judges and God judges lawbreakers. He judges people who break his laws. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, Paul said in Acts 17, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man, capital M, Jesus, whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead.

Therefore God is a judge and we ought to talk to them about this judge who requires the law to be kept. And if you stumble in one point, you're held guilty of all. This is a law to be kept because cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of law and to do them.

This is the judge, Jesus, who said you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect and he's going to judge those who break this law and he'll judge it in a righteous way, in an upright way. He's called the judge of the earth.

The only judges people these days know, probably unless they get in trouble, is that Judge Judy or something like that. But there's one lawgiver and judge and we are to give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

For angels, they fell and they knew they were created and they were judged. When it comes to sin, every sin is going to be punished by the judge, either by us, on us rather, or punished on Jesus as a substitute.

The creator judges sins and lawbreakers who don't love God and who don't love their neighbor. Number three, we're talking about who God is. We're just trying to, I mean, there's lots of ways to do it and you could talk about who Jesus is in the gospel of John, but just try to work through this just generally.

Thankfully, he's a creator, therefore judge, but thankfully, wonderfully, he's also a Savior. He's a Savior. Now we could go through all kinds of other things, but just for the sake of not having a 24-part outline and only 12, four sections with three each, he's Savior.

Romans 5, 9 says, Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God? For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we're reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?

Jesus, the innocent one, the pure one, the righteous one, he saves. And the context here, of course, is he's going to love his children. If he loves his enemies, he's going to love his children. But the fact is here, we have Jesus, a Savior, and everywhere you go, you see God initiating this saving work.

Psalm 17, O Savior of those who take refuge at your right hand, my God, my rock, 2 Samuel 22, in whom I take refuge, my shield and horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my Savior. Isaiah 43, I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no Savior besides me.

And when Jesus comes along, how does Luke record the narrative? For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Jesus is the great Savior. He rescues from sin. He rescues from the wrath of God.

He rescues from the devil's domain. He rescues from our own flesh. In the old days, in the Old Testament days, how did you know somebody was a false prophet? Well, lots of reasons. They wouldn't preach the word or they altered the word.

They added to the word. They cut and pasted the word. True prophets, they would say the day of the Lord's coming, it's going to be a day of wrath. That's a true prophet. And therefore you need to be saved from that wrath.

Acts 5 .31, God hath exalted with his right hand, exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. This great Savior, the Lord Jesus, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly await for a Savior, the Lord Jesus.

Pastoral ministry, you need to know that God saves because things get very dicey at times and it's over and over and over in the pastoral epistles. That is 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. God our Savior, God our Savior, God our Savior.

He saves. Saved from God, saved by God. We've got an infinite debt because we're people who sin and have broken the creatures, we've broken creatures' laws too, but we've broken the Creator's law, laws, therefore he's going to judge us and so we need a Savior.

Calvin said, man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowliest state until he has compared himself with God's majesty. And that gives us a transition to the next point. And the next point's transition is simple.

If you understand who God is, it's going to be a lot easier to understand who you are, who I am. So the second W is, who is man? We've got who is God and who is man? God is a Creator, Judge, and a Savior, oh much more, but for today that's what we're talking about.

A good way to start evangelism, basic, simple. I mean you can just think about, yeah he creates, therefore he judges, thankfully he saves. That's the paradigm. And then now we think about mankind. People need to know that they need a Savior.

Now some of the stuff we already talked about, law breaking, this, that, and the other, but we'll just make it very clear because in America people think that they're basically good, but when you know yourself really in light of who God is, you're not going to have any more confidence.

We're going to look at three words that describe mankind from the book of Romans so that people know they need a Savior. So this is going to remind them that they're sinful so that they need a Savior because if you think you're good, then you don't need a Savior, right?

You can do self-saving. This word that we're going to look at next happens to be our fourth word, but it is the word we're using. See how this is so dumb when I do what I know I'm not supposed to do.

Humanity’s Need for Righteousness

Yeah, it's our fourth word, but it's our first word in the second category. So see how hard that is? Four W's. This is the second W, and we're looking at the first word in the second W. Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

Heno, by the way, do you want to know what Heno is? Grandma Nona, my mother's grandmother, Nona Anderson, she spoke English well. I believe she was Danish, and Grandpa was Swedish, and therefore my other side of the grandparents, Abenroth, they're both German, so I'm one half German, one quarter Swedish, one quarter Danish, Dutch.

Is Danish Dutch, Denmark, Danish, Dutch, Netherlands? If you ain't Dutch, you ain't. Great Dane, great Dutch. I remember in dog class, in 4-H training dog class, Obedience and Show, that Great Danes had heart problems.

You know, German Shepherds have the back legs give out on them, but Great Danes, it's a heart problem. Here's a question for you, why do they call it heartworm medicine that you give your dog when it's really protecting their lungs?

You don't want lung worm. So why do they call it heartworm? I'm almost positive it's a lungworm, but they call it heartworm. Maybe they can get more money out of it. Maybe they said, all right, we got a lungworm, and we got a tailworm, and we got a heartworm.

Which one do you think people would spend more money on it? I mean, you got two lungs, you can chop off your tail. Actually this little no-coat dog right here, this little mascot, she had her tail cut before we got her when she was a little puppy, a little baby.

And they make them short, I don't know, four or five inches long, long enough that if they're in a hole, because they're terriers, terra, terra, firma, terra, land, that they want to dig out animals and squirrels and all that, and they dig, and you got to pull them out so they don't suffocate.

So I never had to pull her out of a hole like that, maybe once, but that was about it. She usually, I usually caught her before she dug in too deeply. Back to the point, unrighteous is the word, we're unrighteous.

And really that's helpful when it comes to the book of Romans, because Romans is about righteousness and how you need perfect righteousness, how you're not righteous, Jesus perfectly earns righteousness and gives it to you by faith, right?

It's about righteousness. Most people think to err is human. Most people think, you know what, we're really good. But deep down at our core, at the root of things, no wonder that's where we get the Latin word from root, it's radical.

It says, there's no one righteous, no, not one. It's almost like, well, what about, nope, not even one. It's written by the way, perfect tense, it is written, it stands written, it's in completed state and it is permanent.

No one is good. Now, of course, he's not talking about the Lord Jesus because he's exalted him in chapter one. I understand that. But this is one of those doctrines that if you get, it will help you in every area.

It would help you understand election. It'll help you understand evangelism. This is God's perspective on us. This is not ours. This is not, I'm better than some other people. No, this is Ecclesiastes seven.

There's not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins. There's a Russian poet and he said, I don't know what the heart of a bad man is like, but I do know what the heart of a good man is like, and it's terrible.

And this terrible unrighteous heart does not seek after God. It doesn't understand God and it's Romans chapter three, verse 11. And really this is the baseline for everything else. Every other religion, man can seek after God because they're not as bad as they really are.

In this religion, in this divine revelation in Christianity, God has to seek after people because we don't seek our own. We don't seek on our own, the Lord Jesus. We seek our own interest, do we not, right?

No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws me and I will raise him up on that last day. What do we do? We turn aside. We become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Therefore, people need righteousness.

The creator, who is the judge, thankfully is a savior, but one of the first things you need to do in order to be saved, I don't like in order to, but part of this whole process is God showing you you're sinful so that you don't look to yourself, but you'll look to and trust in and rest in and rely on the Lord Jesus.

Unrighteous people who don't do the right thing, self-righteous people think they don't need any God's righteousness, both can be forgiven. And they need to realize that they're empty and that they need a perfect righteousness because they need to perfectly keep the law.

Humanity’s Sinfulness and the Fall in Adam

Next, we have the word sinful. We have the word sinful. So we've got unrighteous and number two, sinful. Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We're familiar with that.

While we might be better than Hitler in terms of what we've done for society or not done to society, there is something that's similar and that they were sinful and we're sinful. And maybe the language in Romans 3, 23, all have sinned, that is in Adam, and now continually fall short of the glory of God on our own.

And we just fall short of God's attributes and his glory, his self-revelation. We fall short and whether you're a liar or a murderer or a prostitute, or just a grandmother who just has a hard time with worry and fretting, you can't make it on your own.

You don't have enough righteousness. Romans 5, 8, God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We missed the mark. We need to tell people they're sinful, and I've met people before who've said they're not sinful at all.

That's fascinating to me because they're so ill-informed when it comes to Christianity and sin, you know, they think that sin is somehow a lack of self-esteem or something that Schuller might have taught Robert Schuller with the New Reformation, self-esteem.

Therefore just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned. So not only them, their own selves, but also Adam. Mike Abendroth, stay tuned for the next episode.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.