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Turn with me to the Apostle Paul's letter to the book of Romans. Our text is a very familiar one. Romans chapter 1. These two verses stand out. And it was these two verses, especially verse 17, that the Holy Spirit changed Martin Luther forever.
I've chosen this text of scripture from Romans 1 for it was this text that changed Luther's heart and has changed many, many of God's people's hearts. And that actually set the Reformation in motion throughout Europe in the 16th century during the Dark Ages.
So hear the word of the living God in verse 16 and 17. Verse 16 and 17. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. May God bless the reading of His inspired, all-sufficient word to our ears and hearts this Lord's Day morning.
Let's bow in prayer, please. Our Father in heaven, we come before you, before your throne, and we acknowledge that without you, we can do nothing. In you, we live and move and have our very being. But Lord, we need the supernatural touch of the blessed Holy Spirit to help us.
We pray, O Lord, to grant us illumination by your Holy Spirit. Lord, we need not only light, we need heat. We need both. So Father, my prayer this morning is save each and every one of us from apathy, from being over-familiar with your word and this glorious truth in which we will hear this morning.
Lord, we've heard this text read and this glorious word preached and explained many times, but Father, I would pray only you have the power through your blessed word and through your Spirit to take it from our ears to our hearts.
There's nothing new here. It's just a wonderful, glorious truth of the old paths that's set before us. So Lord, I would pray, give us fresh eyes and ears to see and to hear and to behold the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Lord, warm our hearts with it.
Encourage us. Lift up our heads, and most of all, may the Lord Jesus Christ be lifted up and draw all to yourself. Lord, we pray that you be glorified. And we ask this for your honor and your glory through your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen and amen. Let me first give you a background to where the Apostle Paul is going with this wonderful text. The Apostle in his letter has just greeted the Christians in Rome in verse 7. Verse 7 says, To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's giving thanks for them in verse 8, and then he says, First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the world. Think of that. Their faith is spoken of throughout the world.
And then he holds them to his desire to come and visit them in verse 11, he says, For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gifts so that you may be established. He was very concerned for their establishment in the faith.
He's praying for this and incidentally that prayer of the Apostle was answered, probably not the way that he thought it would be though. So, he was to visit the church in Rome, but he comes as a prisoner in chains.
I want you to think of that. He comes as a prisoner, but yet he's not a prisoner of men, he knows this, he says, I'm a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ, gladly, to suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was not ashamed of that suffering, he says, I'm not ashamed to suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ.
He gladly did it. You know, you must be careful what you pray for sometimes. The Lord will answer that prayer, but not always the way you think. But it's always according to his will, isn't it? Then in verse 14 and 15, he says, I am a debtor.
He's a debtor.
I'm a debtor both to the Greeks and the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. And so, as much as in me, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. And then in this wonderful verse 16 and 17, our text before us this morning, he expresses the gospel of Jesus Christ in which he so desired for them to believe in.
Now, in summary, the introduction that Paul gives us over in the grand theme is stated. That's what he's done. He's given an introduction and he's stated the grand theme, the gospel. Then when we come to these two verses, the preliminaries are over and the trumpet call of Paul's gospel sounds out.
It's like he sets the trumpet to his mouth, as Joel says, and the prophet, and he's ready to blast the gospel and passion and love to the people that needs to hear it. Let me give an illustration here.
Many of great piano concerts begin with crashing chords and they state the theme in which they're to develop. The reason is that they were often first performed at private gatherings and great houses.
And then when the pianist first seated himself at the piano, there was still a buzz of conversation. He played the crashing chord to attract the attention of the company. To bring the people, the audience within of what is being played.
And then the attention was obtained and then the theme was stated. So basically that's what's happening here. Up to these two verses, Paul has been making contact with the people to whom he was writing and he has been attracting their attention to the theme that is being stated and that.
Is the gospel.
Verse 16 and 17 is summarized the gospel of Jesus Christ. And my outline this morning is very simple and I'm just going to give some four key words. I've spoken time and time again on these key words and I think they're critical to understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ because in these words we will find the gospel.
The first word we will look at is power. The second word we will look at will be salvation. The third will be faith. And the fourth is righteousness. Those wonderful words compact the gospel in a nutshell, power, salvation, faith, righteousness in Jesus Christ.
Let's first look at the first word. The word is power, power. The Greek word is dunamis, it's where we get our word dynamite. Text says I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation.
Here is Paul's belief, here is Paul's standing. And this is exactly what Paul desired for the Christians at Rome to be established in. The apostle's absolute confidence in the gospel was based on its supremacy, the supremacy.
Of the gospel.
He knew that to be far superior to any religion, to any religion, to any philosophy ever known on planet earth, the world of Paul's day was dominated by three lines of thought. One was a Greek thought, next was Roman, and the next was Hebrew.
The Greek, basically Greek logic, Roman law, and Hebrew light, all paled, beloved, in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the dynamite of God. It is God's power. And in face of all three, Paul could actually say I am not ashamed.
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul's confidence in the gospel was based in its sufficiency, its sufficiency, its sufficiency. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation.
Commentator John Billups says this, the world does not need a better system of education, more social reform, new ideas of religion.
It needs the gospel.
The gospel message grips the mind. It stabs the conscience. It warms the heart. It saves the soul. It sanctifies the life. It can make drunken men sober, crooked men straight, and prolificate women pure.
It is a message that is sufficient to transform the life of any who believe in it. It is the power of God unto salvation. It is the power of God unto salvation. So the gospel is defined in terms of power.
In other words, what does power do? It does something. It's like an explosive. It's not just a mere ornament for us to just sit back and say, okay, it's an ornament like to put on a tree. It does something.
It has the power to illuminate. It has the power to transform. Not simply just a pleasing story, not only an interesting system of philosophy. God forbid. Paul says it is the power of God. Think of that, what I'm saying.
Within this gospel of Jesus Christ is the very power of Almighty God. And God's power is unlimited. It is the power of God unto salvation, the scripture says. It is the living and the powerful word of God.
God is the kind of power in His word when God spoke and when there was nothing at one time, then God, but God. And when He spoke, something came into existence. Everything that we see on this earth, this planet earth, God spoke it by the sheer power of His word and it came to being.
And you read it in Genesis, let there be light and there was light. Within the word of God, it's all powerful. It has the power to create. It has the power, in the Greek word, the dunamis, the dynamite.
The gospel of Jesus Christ carries with it the very omnipotence of God itself. You see, the gospel of Jesus Christ is all sufficient.
It is effective.
It's transforming. The power of God is behind this word. What kind of power? The power of God that acts. The power of God that works. The power of the human soul that imparts life to the dead, that raises the dead to life and give light out of darkness, giving understanding to the ignorant, wisdom to the foolish and belief to the unbelieving.
All of which the aspects of regeneration of new birth in which we've been looking at from John chapter 3 comes. The regenerate power of God is all in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's why Paul says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
I think every day when I hear God's word audibly, I put it on my truck heading to my job. The first thing I do in the morning. I don't want to hear no news. I don't want to hear no Christian songs or anything.
I want to hear the word of God. I need my faith strengthened. I need to hear God's word. I need to hear the very power of God. And I know that power every time I hear it. I know within that word carries such power to strengthen my soul, to encourage my soul, to convict it.
But at the same time, it gives me strength for the day to carry me through. Psalm 19, 7, the law of the Lord, or you could say the word of the Lord, the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.
If we want to see souls converted, it will be through the word of God. It will not be through our so-called wise words. It will be through the word of the living God. First Corinthians 118, the apostle Paul says, for the word, the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is what?
The power of God. The preaching of the cross, the preaching of the word is the power of God. Jeremiah the prophet in Jeremiah 13, 23 says, can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to do evil.
You see, it is not within our power, our willpower to change our own sinful condition, our sinful nature, our depraved fallen nature. No, it is the power of the word of God that only can reach in the darkness of the cavity of the soul of man and convert him.
And rebuking the Sadducees who tried to entrap Jesus many, many times and tempted him, Jesus told them in Matthew 22, 29, you are mistaken. You are mistaken. Not understanding the scriptures or the power of God.
The scriptures or the power of God. Only the power of God is able to overcome man's sinful nature that binds him, that blinds him and imparts spiritual life in and through Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, through the word of God.
As we think about the Reformation and how God began to break out through His Spirit during the 16th century, Luther did not expect it to happen the way it did. He didn't plan it like that. He basically just stood on God's word.
And listen to what Luther says. He approached it and he explains by taking what took place during the Reformation here and Luther gave this famous answer when someone says, explain what was going on, explain it.
They asked him. He says, quote, I simply talked and preached and wrote God's word, otherwise I did nothing. I did nothing. And then I slept and the word so greatly weakened the papacy and that never a prince or never an emperor that inflicted such damage upon it.
And then he says, I did nothing.
The word of God did it all. That's what we're about, folks. As a Christian, as a church, we're about this book. You take this book and this out of the church, you don't have a church.
There is no church.
And sad to say, tragically to say, this is what's happening in our day. People has removed the word of the living God. We need to return back to this book. Spurgeon said it is the only authority to the church.
The only authority is thus saith the Lord. Lord help us, break us, bring us back to this great word. Spurgeon again says the word of God is like a lion. You don't have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let it loose and the lion will defend itself.
It's powerful.
It has power, power. The second word in our text is, he says this, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God to salvation. Let's look at this word salvation. What a word.
Marvelous word. The power of God is seen in witness and salvation as Ephesians chapter 2 says, men who are dead in sin, trespasses, salvation of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ as God acting to make dead men live.
That's why Jesus came, to live forever, to have eternal life. This is because the life in which God has given us is short here, beloved. And I'm telling you, there is an eternal life, there is an eternity and somebody says, well I'm going to live forever.
You will, but where?
That's the question.
Where? Will it be heaven or hell? It's no purgatory, which the Catholics, the Roman Catholics believe in as such a damnable lie and Satan would love people to believe in such a heretical lie. But there is no purgatory according to the word of God.
The Bible says it is appointed for once man to die and after that the judgment. We need to tell people this folks. We need to tell people. But the word of God tells us there is power in God's word, there is salvation in God's word and through His word and only through Jesus Christ, the living word, it has the power to cleanse us from sin, cleanse our conscience according to the word of God from dead works to serve the living God and to make us ready for heaven through the merits and perfect works of Jesus and that's the only way that we can be prepared to go to heaven through Jesus Christ and through Jesus Christ alone and by faith alone.
Actually, as you well know, the reformers of the 16th century were moved to put their livelihoods and their homes, their fortunes and lives on the line to restore the church to the essential teachings of the gospel itself.
They were all about the gospel. These core teachings have come down to five Latin phrases and you are familiar with these if you know the doctrines of grace. Translated in English, they teach that salvation is according to scripture alone and Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone for the glory of God alone.
That's the Latin Solas, the Latin five Solas of the reformation. Sola alone marks it separate and distinct because the Catholics will even say to you today that yes, they will agree with you that you are saved by faith, but alone is what made it distinct.
That word alone draws the line in the sand and says it is in Jesus alone, not of any good works that you do or we do, it is in Christ's good works. That's why his life is so important. We live by his life, but we live by his death, we live by both because he fulfilled all righteousness.
He kept the law perfectly in which we cannot even come close to. The five Solas, that word alone is so critical. It is the fuel, that word alone is critical. During Martin Luther's time when he translated the scriptures from Latin to German for the common layman in that day, he added that one word that just shall live by faith alone.
He added the word Sola there and people really raised cain about it, but during that time period it was very critical because it wasn't just by faith, it was faith alone in Jesus Christ, alone. Think of that.
Take that word alone out, you basically, you could say well my faith is in this or that, but no, it's in Jesus, in Jesus alone and no one else. Not anything else, not added, not subtracted, not from, it's the word of God through grace by faith in God through Jesus Christ.
In a nutshell, the meaning of the five Solas, Sola Scriptura, scripture alone, the scriptures alone are supreme authority. They contain and are sufficiently clear in teaching and all things necessary for salvation.
And godliness.
That's what the scripture says. Solus Christus, Christ alone, basically says our savior and lord and the mediator, the lord of the church, the anointed one, Christ has accomplished the necessary work for our salvation and it is complete in full atonement and nothing else could be added to it or taken away from it.
It stands what? Alone.
Isn't it wonderful?
When Jesus says it is finished, what is basically saying paid in full, nothing else.
He did it all.
Sola Grata, Sola Grata, by grace alone, we are sinners, we cannot contribute anything to our salvation. Our salvation accomplished by the sovereign unmerited favor of God who freely chose to save sinners out of his goodness and his love, Jonathan Edwards says this and I quote this quite often, the only thing you cannot contribute to our salvation is the sin that made it necessary and that's it.
Nothing else. Sola Fide, and this is actually, this is actually what we're focusing on through faith alone. It's the article in which the church stands or falls, which Luther said, faith, receiving, resting on Christ and his righteousness alone, his righteousness, that he fulfilled all righteousness and is the only means by which we can receive justification and that is a right standing before a holy God and how will anyone survive to stand before a holy God at that tribunal?
It's only through Jesus Christ and his life and his righteousness and I'm telling you folks, if we are not dressed in the righteousness of Christ on that tribunal day, there will be condemnation in hell.
It's Christ or hell. And how can people within the church try to say, well, you could do this and you could keep the wall and you could do a little of this and be a good person and somehow enter into the gates and the porters of heaven?
That's heresy.
I'm telling you folks, it is narrow and Jesus meant it to be narrow. It's all in Christ, in Christ alone. Folks, this is our message.
This is the heart of the gospel.
What about the last one? Solidea gloria. Don't you love that? And all of this is to the glory of God alone. This is what it's all about. It's God's glory and God will be glorified and people will say, you mean to tell me even in the people that die and go to hell, God will be glorified?
Absolutely.
The scripture says every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And folks, that means all the damned and the unrighteous one day will bow the knee before Jesus Christ at the great tribunal of those that are lost and God will still be glorified.
Oh, isn't it wonderful? This is going to happen. God alone is due all glory for salvation because salvation is in God and God alone. Man, how dare little man to try to add anything to it? And that's why the Apostle Paul got so upset when even the Apostle Peter at one time, publicly, think of that, was eating with, he was mingling in and he was actually at this point being a hypocrite with the Jews.
And it was kind of like, well, Peter, why are you doing this? Because you understand the gospel to the Gentiles. And Paul had to publicly rebuke him lovingly, and I'm telling you, not against the Apostle Peter, but after he was rebuked, he humbly took it.
He was the Apostle that walked and talked with the Lord Jesus Christ for three years. And Paul humbly went to him, and you know why Paul did that?
Because the gospel was at stake.
It was so important that Paul even saw that Peter was compromising and giving in to the gospel. When the gospel is at stake, folks, it's everything. Oh, I can't say enough about this, the greatest manifestation of God's power of bringing lost men to salvation and transforming their nature, giving them eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
It's all through the word of God, and it's all through him alone, through Christ alone, through grace alone, by faith alone, through the scriptures alone. All for the glory of God alone. The word salvation is a beautiful word.
It literally means deliverance.
Deliverance.
God is a God of deliverance. Brother Keith brought that out this morning, that God is a God that delivers. The psalmist speaks about God is a God of deliverance. David, when he was a shepherd boy, that's what it was all about.
He was so upset that those heathen Philistines were just mocking God's name, and he said that's not going to happen. God will be glorified. This word deliverance is used 18 times by the apostle Paul in the New Testament, 5 times in Romans.
The verb 29 times by Paul, 8 times in Romans. We learn, the psalmist, that despite their rebellion, the people of Israel, God saved his chosen people for the sake of his holy name. That he might make his power known in all the world.
That's the reason why. God, as God incarnate, Jesus Christ, came and manifested his divine power in healing diseases, restoring the crippled limbs, opening blinded eyes, raising the dead, stilling the storms, calming the storms, casting out demons.
Jesus Christ, as the king, came to restore and to rescue people from ultimate penalty. From the sin in which the spiritual death intended and tormented eternal separation from him. That's why Christ came.
To seek and save the lost. And when we see these lost people that are dead in trespasses and sins out there, we should have pity on their souls and say, look, there is an answer, there is a hope, there's a living hope you can have.
Through Jesus Christ and through him alone, by the power of his word, by believing in him, they could be saved from sin, from Satan, from the judgment to come, from the wrath of God. Flee from the wrath of God.
And Jesus Christ is the one that we fly to, to flee from that wrath and from eternal spiritual death that looms over mankind. Folks, isn't that good news? Isn't that good news? Isn't that worthy? There's no greater news.
In a world where all we hear is bad news, and a lot of bad's been going on, hasn't it? Let's stand up for the good news. Let's not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.
Salvation is God's achievement, not man's attainment. Salvation is God's mighty power reaching down through the cross of Jesus Christ and lifting up the poor sinner out of the pit of sin and setting him on the rock of ages.
It makes me think about how David, it stoles God in Psalm 40, verses 1 -3. You can turn with me there very quickly. Let's look at that wonderful psalm. I'm thinking about it, and I can't help but think about it.
It's one of the beautiful psalms. And listen to what David says, I waited patiently for the Lord in Psalm 40, verse 1. And he inclined to me. And he heard my cry.
And he also brought me up out of a horrible pit.
Can you sense the heart here?
Can you sense that everything that's being done here is God's deliverance and salvation? He brought me up.
He brought me up out of a horrible pit. He brings me up out of a horrible pit.
Out of what?
The miry clay.
What does clay do?
He's talking about like quicksand. It makes you sink. Man is sinking and sinking in horrible thick clay going down. But God brings him up. He takes his arm to bring him out. Set my feet upon a rock. Listen to that.
And throughout the scriptures, the Apostle Paul even says that rock is Christ. That rock is Christ. He set me on Christ. He established my steps. And he even put a new song in my mouth. And he prays to our God.
And many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord.
Listen to that.
That's salvation. Commentator Charles Erdman says this about salvation. This is familiar but inexhaustible. An inexhaustible word. Salvation may be interpreted in terms of deliverance from sin or new spiritual life and soundness of soul.
It denotes deliverance from the guilt of sin granted to those who are justified. And deliverance from the power of sin experienced by those who are being sanctified. And deliverance from the very presence and results of sin enjoyed by those that will be one day glorified.
And thus, salvation may be regarded as past, present, or future. In the first aspect, this theme is expanded in the opening five chapters of this letter. And in the second and the third aspects, it's developed in the sixth and seventh and eighth.
Chapters.
Talking about Romans. However, as a life of holiness and service, salvation is set forth in the closing or practical portion of the epistle. Thus, in the widest use of the term, salvation may be interpreted to include all that a believer receives through faith in Jesus Christ and from the time he is pardoned as a penitent sinner until he realizes his fullness, blessedness, and eternal glory forever and ever.
Amen? So, salvation is through and only through Jesus Christ and God's powerful right hand that he is accomplished through the cross of Jesus Christ. And not only through the cross, but through his perfect life.
His whole person, his whole life is all summed up. Salvation will come to men no other way but through only and through faith alone in the person and works of Jesus Christ. He's let down, he lets down his arm to lift men up through Christ.
God's salvation brings deliverance from the spiritual infection of this perverse generation. From lostness, from sin, and ultimately from the wrath of almighty God. And that's ultimately what we're saved from, isn't it?
We're saved from sin. That's what Jesus does and accomplishes. Matthew 121 says this, and speaking of Mary, she will bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins.
Wonderful, isn't it? From their evil self-indulgence, from a self-centered life, and from the darkness of false religion. That's what he saves us from. He saves us from the wrath of God that is an eternal punishment and all this is in Jesus and Jesus alone.
You know, I think it was Spurgeon that said for people to reject Jesus Christ is more than just a fool.
He's a madman.
He's not in his right mind to back away and say, I don't want Jesus.
Oh, beloved, how can people do such a thing? And all that God has done, in and through the cross.
I like what Amy Carmichael says, they spoke about the sacrifice this woman made as she went to the orphans in India to give the gospel to these little children that was being put up in prostitution of an idolatrous temple and she reached out in love and compassion to reach these little children and had an orphanage.
She never married.
She left, she left, was it Ireland, I believe, Ireland and a very rich home to go there to give her her entire life to reach these little children for Jesus Christ and somebody came to her one time and said, what a sacrifice you've done.
She said, oh, beloved, you don't know this is no sacrifice. How can I call this a sacrifice when I compare all that's in the light of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? He's the one that gave the sacrifice.
You see why she said that? She got a glimpse of the glory of God in Jesus Christ of all that God did through the cross. I don't know about you, but this warms my heart. He made the sacrifice.
He is the sacrifice.
He's all in all. Every day we live, we should wake up, look at Jesus. We should breathe Christ. We should hear Christ and through his word and how can we know Christ more is through his word and through prayer.
God help us. Salvation, salvation through Jesus Christ. The next, that salvation is to those who what? The third word, to those who believe. You must believe it. You must believe it or into faith and to faith alone.
The connection is belief and faith through faith alone. Belief carries the basic idea of trusting in or relying or leaning upon with all your weight upon someone or something. Jesus said the New Testament of salvation is usually always in the present tense and continuous form, which is called, it could be translated is believing.
It's present tense.
It's not a one time act.
It's a constant act.
As Jesus says, speaks about the perseverance of the saints. It's like you continue to believe.
You abide.
Example of this, let me give a very simple illustration in our daily living is filled with acts of faith, really it is. We turn on the water faucets as we get up. We take it for granted. That's an act of faith.
We drink water. That's an act of faith, isn't it? Well, trusting is safe to drink, isn't trust? Can we drink it safely?
That is not poisoned.
That's an act of faith.
We fly on a jet plane, don't we? And you put your faith in that pilot, aren't you, Brother Keith? All the way across the ocean. If that pilot loses control, it goes down or something happens.
It's faith.
Despite, occasionally, disasters that happen, we trust airplanes, as I mentioned, to fly safely across the ocean to our destination. You and I go to restaurants, so that's an act of faith, isn't it? That we're not being poisoned.
What did they feed us? Did they insert poison? In a sense, we all live by faith in that sense. People could not survive without having trust in these things that we take for granted so often, but we do have faith in it.
But here, the Apostle Paul has in mind in our text, it's not that kind of faith. The kind of faith, what is he talking about? In Hebrews 11, verse 1 says,. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
You know what he's talking about? He's talking about a supernatural faith that's a gift of God that comes from God above to us as a gift and an instrument to lay hold of Christ. Men cannot do that within themselves.
No matter how much knowledge they have right here, it is a heart, because in Romans 10, 9 and 10, it basically says, he believes unto what? The heart believes unto righteousness. Unto righteousness. It's a faith that is not of ourselves.
It is the gift of God. Eternal life is both gained and lived by faith from God in Jesus Christ, Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
Isn't that wonderful?
It's not of yourself. It's not me.
It's not you.
It is God's gift. It is the gift of God. That's what the scripture says. Verse 9, not of works lest anyone should boast. If we had just a tiny bit of works, one day we could, people could get to heaven and say,.
You know, I had a little tiny bit in that God.
No sir, it's not going to happen that way. God says all that faith that he gives, it will be to his glory because it is the faith. It is a gift from God. Only those who believe the gospel are saved by the power of God.
Jesus said this in John 3, 18, that he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. Jesus says in Mark 1, 15, when Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel, the kingdom of God, he says the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand and has been at hand ever since he came.
Repent and believe the gospel.
Repent and believe the gospel. Turn from your sin and believe the gospel and lean on Christ with all of your weight. And that means I follow him until death. Even if it means if I should die for him. And by the way, the martyrs that counted a great privilege.
Wonderful. The mouth confesses unto salvation with the heart one believes unto righteousness. Let's go to our fourth word because this is the word we really need to look at. Righteousness, righteousness.
Verse 17, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the judge shall live by faith. In what?
The gospel.
That's what he's talking about.
The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. And the person and works of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God is revealed and the judge shall live by faith. Paul explains the power of the gospel is due to the fact that therein is revealed a righteousness.
Of God from faith to faith. One may note here, by the way, the importance of this little word for don't take that little word for granted for because Paul desires to preach it in Rome for he is not ashamed.
He is not ashamed of the gospel for it for it is the power of God unto salvation and it is God's power to salvation for everyone who believes for in it. The righteousness of God is revealed. It's a revelation.
God reveals it. Have you noticed that when you give the gospel at times people there's people's blinders.
Are still on.
They don't get it. They don't understand it because they haven't seen the glory. The glory of God hasn't cut their eyes on. He hasn't removed the scales. The phrase righteousness of God used in this particular verse is I quote Luther right here.
Listen to this from Romans from his commentary on Romans. Luther said this, God's righteousness is that by which we become worthy of his great salvation and through which alone we are accounted righteous before him.
Human teachers set forth and then calculate the righteousness of men that is who is righteous or how a person becomes righteous both in his own eyes and those of others. But only the gospel he says reveals the righteousness of God.
That is who is righteous and how a person becomes righteous before God. Namely alone by faith which trusts the word of God. The righteousness of God is the cause of salvation. The righteousness however is not that according to which God himself is righteous as God but that which by which we are justified by him through faith in the gospel.
Isn't that wonderful? And the scripture says he justifies the ungodly. Romans 3, listen to this, verse 21, and now the righteousness of God apart from the law, apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets and the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ is to all and all who believe for there is no difference.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And then he says this, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God set forth as a propitiation, a satisfaction by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed and notice what he says in verse 26, to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
That's the heart of the gospel.
Wonderful. The righteousness of God for Luther was something that condemned him at one time. No matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried, no matter what self-denial that he would engage in, he saw the justice and the righteousness of a holy God condemning.
Him.
But when he saw it through the gospel and the Holy Spirit opened up his eyes, his blinded eyes and took the scales away, he saw it as God provided this righteousness for him. And by the way, this is the main difference between what divides the line between the Catholic Church of Rome with the Protestants and what we believe, a justification by faith alone, is that faith, that imputed by faith, the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Is not infused.
In other words, it's not something within us. It's outside of us. It's forensic. In other words, it's judicial. It is something that God has done and he's declared you righteous. Could you think of that?
God Almighty declares you righteous in Jesus Christ as you put your trust in him. In other words, all your sin, your pardon, your forgiven. And he clothes you with the righteousness of Jesus. So when he looks down, he's not seeing you, he sees Christ.
Isn't that glorious? So at one time, Luther feared the justice of a holy God because it condemned him. Now, and actually, this is his words, I began to hate the righteousness of God until I saw for the first time that the righteousness that God demands is a righteousness that he provides in the gospel.
God has provided it.
It's provided.
And quote, and when he saw that, he said this, it was like the opening of the gates of paradise. I believe it. I believed it. It was at that moment that Martin Luther was justified by faith alone and born again of the spirit of God.
The doctrine of justification by faith, sola fide, is the central affirmation of which he says, the article in which and by the church stands or it falls. Did you know this man believed so much in this, in the gospel here, and he preached it every Lord's Day.
Every Lord's Day. It's the heart of the gospel. Without it, you know why it's the heart of the gospel? Because you cannot go any further from this. Because it must start, one godly man said this, our sanctification begins where justification.
Ends.
I think I got this right. Sanctification begins where justification ends. But justification is instantaneous, once and forever. He doesn't have to go back and do it again and again and again. And that's why the Catholics get so mixed up with this justification and sanctification that they don't know which is which.
Because they're taught heresy. And he goes on, Luther said this, the doctrine is the head and the cornerstone. It begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God and without it, the church of God cannot exist for one hour.
Because that's our standing before God. Nothing else. Now let me give some application to this wonderful verse that we looked at, these wonderful two.
Verses.
It's set before us, it is an old age question. And I must set it before you, is this question. What must I do to be right with God? Or rather, let me ask it another way. How can I be right with the holy, righteous God?
That within my heart, I know that my sins condemn me. How can I have a right standing before a holy God that is perfect and just? Because I'm telling you folks, at the judgment, it will be that holy standard that will have no curbs.
No one else will be there but only you and God. How can you be right before a holy God? But how can you survive a tribunal before a holy God? That's an important question. And this is the kind of question we should be asking in evangelism, right?
Ask people, or like Ravenhill says, he said no longer goes up and asks people, are you saved? He said everybody's saved from the white house to the jailhouse. But we should be asking, like Ravenhill said, one of two questions.
This question, how can you be right with the holy God, being a sinner, because you're a sinner, or does Christ live in you? Because that's what Christianity is. How can we escape the eternal damnation that is hinging over and lures over people?
I pray that the answer that is given here is adequate and sufficient. I believe it will be because we have the saying, sure promise from the scriptures, that it's not what we do, and it's not what I have done, or what you have done, or what anyone else has done, but it's what God has done in Jesus.
That's why the person and works of Jesus is everything. Justification by faith alone, sola fide. For shorthand, it basically means justification by the righteousness of Christ alone. Or by the merits, or should I say the works of Jesus, his active obedience, his passive obedience, basically saying his active obedience was his life, his perfect life, that he lived for me.
He fulfilled all righteousness by keeping the law, and his passive obedience is death on the cross as he made atonement for sin. All included and only his works are sufficient to satisfy the demands of a holy and just God, and that's why the word satisfaction is there, because when God saw Jesus, his son on the cross, he was satisfied, that nothing else satisfies God.
Think of that. But the person and the works of Jesus Christ in his life, and in his death, that's why.
The gospel is so critical.
This is the very heart of the gospel, beloved, because it's right here that Jesus Christ is our righteousness, and we are dressed in his righteousness. This happens by faith, and when we put our trust in Christ, and by the way, that is a work of God, because as I've already said, through the scriptures, faith is a gift of God, it's an instrument which we can lay hold of Christ, but otherwise we can't do it within our own power.
Faith is given by God to take a hold of Christ, to take a hold of his works, to take a hold of his death, his burial, his resurrection, and all that he did, justification by faith. By faith we receive the transfer, the imputation of his righteous robes, his righteousness, and we're clothed in it.
You see this all the way through scripture, from the time when Adam and Eve fell in the garden, what's the first thing that God did? He slew an animal, and he clothed them. He put clothes over their nakedness.
Only the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and it's a great exchange because what do we do? We take off our robes, our coats, our clothes, and we say, Lord, it's filthy, it's our righteousness, our righteousness is filthy rags before God.
So only the robes of Christ, and as 2 Corinthians 5 .21 says, for he made him, God the Father made Christ who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And then you and I could say what Paul and Philippians in chapter 3 verse 9, and be found in him, not a having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, by faith.
As an old Puritan quaintly defined it, the righteousness of God is the righteousness which God's righteousness requires him to require. That is, an infinitely holy God can require of man nothing less than the perfect righteousness as man cannot attain this by himself, thus God provides it for him.
Isn't that glorious? Double imputation folks, double imputation. Jesus took our sin, in exchange God gave us his righteousness, that's why scripture says that Christ became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
It's glorious, it's glorious, by faith, by faith. Well folks, as Luther said it, when God reformed the church through his word, Luther got it right, didn't he? He said, I did nothing, but the word of God did it all.
God raised up that man and just used him as an instrument. Not that Luther would have attention, but that the word of God and God would be glorified. As the old hymn says, not the labor of my hands can fulfill the law's demands.
Could my zeal no longer know, could my tears forever flow, all for sin, could not atone, thou must save, and thou alone. Let's brand that in our memory, let's say, Lord, put this before me. Scripture alone, Christ alone, grace alone, through faith alone, through the glory of God alone.
Let me ask you a personal question, are you trusting in God through Jesus Christ for this great salvation this morning? This is a critical, critical question. Have you trusted in his righteousness that is provided through God and Christ?
Have you trusted in this? Have you repented and believed in the gospel today? Today's the day of salvation. Don't listen to the devil, I'll put it off tomorrow. Another day and another day and another day may never come.
Today's the day of salvation. Always the present. And all, beloved, that will matter on the judgment day is that trusting in Jesus Christ alone and being dressed in him alone. Only two days, as Luther said on his calendar, as far as he was concerned, today and judgment day, that was it.
Have you put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and have you found his great mercy in Jesus Christ? Have you found mercy and compassion through Jesus Christ?
Because it's there.
And one day, God's spirit will not always strive for man, Jesus Christ will come back in power and great glory and it's going to happen quick and it'll be over. Don't put it off. Put all your trust in Jesus Christ and if you don't have the power to do that, call out to God and say, Lord, I don't have the ability, and this is actually the right prayer, I don't have the ability, I have nothing to contribute but my sin, I could do nothing for my salvation, I just follow my face and Lord, have mercy upon me.
And as Jesus said, the man that cried out to have mercy and he smote his breast, he said he went home justified. The thief on the cross is a perfect example of God's sovereign grace, isn't it? Remember me.
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom and Jesus assured him, today you will be with me in paradise. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, dear Father, for our time together here as we worship you.
We thank you for the glorious gospel, the good news, which is all in your beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, your one and only Son that you gave on that cruel cross, the pay, the ransom. Not only did he die for us, he lived for us.
Therefore, we could be dressed in his righteousness. Thank you, Lord, for your sovereign grace and the salvation in which you have accomplished by your right powerful arm. Lord, we rejoice today that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, sinners like all of us.
Thank you, Lord, that he came and came to redeem us by his precious, precious blood. For he will save his people from their sins. That's the guarantee we can have, a sure word, a sure word that will never fail.
And we can count on it, we can reckon on it, we can be sanctified because of it, we can be saved because of it, we will be glorified because of it one day. And we stand on that word, Lord, and we thank you for your Son.
And Lord, we would pray, ask, O Lord, make us a congregation of sinners saved by your redeeming grace that delights in your grace, that delights in you, and who can never, ever get over the gospel of Jesus Christ.
May we never get over it, for it transforms our life forever by your power of your Holy Spirit and through Jesus Christ and through your word. We ask these things for your glory and honor. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.