Sunday Sermon: The Power of God for Salvation (Romans 1:16)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an

Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series.

Here is Pastor Gabe. This morning, we are back in Romans chapter 1.

Once again, we're in verses 16 and 17. And if you would please, in honor of the word of the

King, stand. Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. As we read these two verses again, coming into our lesson today, the

Apostle Paul writing to the church in Rome, hear the word of the Lord. For I am not ashamed of the gospel.

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 righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.

As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

You may be seated as we once again come to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we now open your word and desire to hear from your spirit,

I pray that we are reminded once again of the power of the gospel.

Every single one of us that are sitting in here today who can claim to be saved, who will say that we are followers of Jesus Christ, who know in our heart of hearts that when we die, we will be in the presence of God forever.

Any one of us can say this only because of the power of the gospel and what it has done in our lives.

We were once sinners destined for hell, had rebelled against God. We were worthy of judgment and yet hearing the gospel, the good news that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that he rose again from the dead, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

We have put our faith and trust in him and our condition, our destiny has changed.

No longer under the judgment of God, we have now been adopted as sons and daughters of God and have been made fellow heirs of his eternal kingdom.

And though we will still die in our bodies, we will live forever with God in glory.

And this all through what you have purposed and planned through the gospel of Christ that was proclaimed to us and now must be proclaimed to the world.

May we see the power in these very words that have been spoken to us and given to us in scripture as we come to this lesson today.

It is in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen. Charles Spurgeon once said, do not go where it is all fine music and grand talk and beautiful architecture.

Go where the gospel is preached and go often. And we would desire to be in such a church where the gospel is proclaimed because we believe that it does indeed have power.

And as we have considered in previous weeks, as we've been looking into this study in the book of Romans, the gospel has power not only to save in a moment, our conversion as we might call it, changing us from one person into another person, but the gospel even has the power to sustain us in that salvation.

And even on the day that we die, transfer us from our state of mortality into immortality.

And all of that through the power of the gospel that God has purposed for us.

These very words bring life, they save. And what does that mean?

We will consider that as we come back to these words again today. There's a quote from St. Francis of Assisi, you've heard me quote before and have heard me make fun of before.

And it is where he has said, preach the gospel always, if necessary use words.

Now that quote is absurd for three reasons. Number one, there's actually no evidence that St.

Francis ever said it. So even though it's attributed to St. Francis, we don't really know its origin or where it came from.

A search through the works of his that we do have record of, you cannot find any evidence that St.

Francis said this expression, preach the gospel always, and if necessary use words. So wherever it did come from, it didn't come from St.

Francis, but you might note that whoever did say it, they used words, right?

Second problem with this quote, preach the gospel always, if necessary use words.

Words are necessary, and so we must use them. The very understanding of what the gospel is, the definition of that word is good news, and news must be proclaimed.

You don't turn on the news to find out what's going on in the world, watching somebody mime to you things that are happening around the globe, and then you have to figure out through charades what is happening in the world today.

Somebody tells you the news, or you open up a web app to read what the news is today, but somebody has put it into words so that you might understand things that are taking place.

It is a declaration, it is a proclamation of something. And so therefore, by its very nature, words are necessary.

Can you imagine going to the Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28, before Jesus is about to leave his disciples and ascend into heaven, and he says to them, go into all nations and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and if necessary use words.

Can you imagine Jesus saying such a thing? That would be absurd, and we know that the Son of God is not absurd.

He would never say such. He does mean, in fact, for us to use words.

That quote seems to imply that we just go out and love one another, and love would therefore be some sort of demonstration of the gospel.

Oh, and if it's necessary for you to have to use words to kind of clarify what it is that you are doing, then do that.

My friends, it is the necessity of our love for others that we would tell them the good news, that we would actually use words to say to them that salvation is found only in Christ alone.

So that's the second problem with the quote, is that it is necessary to use words. But the third thing is the very nature of the quote itself denies the power of God in the gospel.

Preach the gospel always, which implies do some sort of action, do some sort of good works or love to demonstrate the gospel to somebody else, and if necessary, if you have to use words in there somewhere as a secondary measure, then use them.

But the very fact that that is the implication of the quote is to deny the very power of the gospel itself.

To know that it is only through the preaching of the gospel, it is only through hearing the gospel, it being said and then you listening to it and responding to it, that we understand the power of God in the gospel to save those who believe it.

And how do you know what to believe unless you are told? Paul asks that very question a little bit later on in chapter 10.

The gospel has the power to save a person from the very judgment of God.

And that is the declaration as Paul makes it here in Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17.

Now we have been looking at these two verses over the course of three sermons. This is the second of those three.

Last week we looked at the first part of verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel.

And understanding what that means. The Apostle Paul saying that he is eager to come and preach the gospel to them there in Rome and he is not afraid of what anybody would do to him coming to share the gospel with him.

I'm not ashamed of the gospel. So that's the first part of this statement. The second part we look at today, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the

Jew first and also to the Greek. And then the third we will look at next week is all of verse 17.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

So these three sermons are separated by the three fours that we have in these two verses.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation. And next week for in it the righteousness of God is revealed.

Now as we look at this section today, for it is the power of God is going to be the first part that we look at.

Understanding what this means about the gospel being the power of God. Secondly, for salvation to everyone who believes.

That's the second part of the statement and not just being salvation, but everybody who believes in the gospel receives this salvation.

And then the third part of this, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. What does Paul mean by that?

Why does he even include that in this statement? Which we understand to be our thesis statement to the entire letter that Paul is writing here to the church in Rome.

What is it that Paul understood the gospel to be? And we considered that last week, even taking various passages of scripture from Romans itself to see how

Paul presents the gospel to this church that he is writing to. So as we come into this first part here, the power of God for salvation, let's recap once again what the gospel is.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

So the gospel once again means good news. It is the declaration, the proclamation of what

God has accomplished and is fulfilling through the person and work of his son,

Jesus Christ. Jesus came to this earth, which we remember and celebrate now at exactly this time of year.

It's marked on your calendar. A remembrance of the incarnation is on everybody's calendar right there on December 25th.

Christmas, the name of Christ is even in the name of the holiday itself. Now the origins of that name, of course, go back to when a mass was held on that particular day, and so Christ mass is where we come up with Christmas.

But nonetheless, the name Christ is there to remember his birth and the coming of God in the flesh to this world.

As we had recited together this morning from John chapter one, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. But to those who did receive him and believe on his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who are born not of the flesh, not of blood, not of the will of man, but of God.

The very power of God for salvation demonstrated right there even in those words in John chapter one.

So we remember that Christ was given to this world, that we had a need to be made right with God.

We who had rebelled against God and were worthy of judgment. And Christ came so that by becoming that sacrifice that we needed, atoning sacrifice for our sins, he would die on the cross in our place.

He would rise again from the grave for our justification. And all who would believe in him and what he did and what he accomplished would therefore be saved.

And that is very simply the message of the gospel. Now as we understand the gospel as good news, as I said to you last week, it is necessary for us to know the bad news first.

For the good news to be good, you have to know what's coming to you without Christ.

And Paul is gonna get into this when we go to the next section of Romans. Verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men.

Every single one of us have rebelled against God. It is in our nature to rebel against God.

Had a conversation with a man earlier this week who said, can you explain to me how you believe as a reformed

Baptist, and reformed Baptist very simply means I'm a Bible believer. But anyway, this was his argument.

How can you believe as a reformed Baptist that babies, babies, before they've ever even done anything good or bad, you would call them sinners?

And I said, it's very simple, because scripture says that we are born with a sin nature. From our very conception, we have received this sin nature.

It is because we are descendants of Adam. And the curse that was placed upon Adam, who rebelled against God, has continued on down through each and every one of us.

And if you'll watch and see a little child as they get a little bit older, you will see that sin nature come out.

I don't think anybody needs to be told this, that kids are sinners. Like every parent knows this.

I remember one time babysitting for a couple in the church that I attended.

This was when I was in college living in Western Kansas. And at one point, one of the babies decided to sit up at the top of a set of stairs.

Now, thankfully, there were only three stairs. It wasn't the entire flight of stairs. But their crawler, not even yet a toddler, decided this was the place where he wanted to try to sit up.

So he's sitting now on his haunches, just barely just kind of balancing himself. His sister, who's about three years old, comes walking up to him and looks at him, and just decides to kick him down the stairs.

He didn't do anything to provoke her. It was just that moment where my little brother needs to learn a lesson.

And so kicked him down the three stairs, and he tumbled and bumbled, and then of course reached the bottom and cried because his sister had just kicked him down the stairs.

Like I said, I'm thankful it was only three stairs and not the entire flight. What would be in the heart of his sister to do such a thing?

Sin, it is in each and every one of our hearts. We are born with that nature, just like a dog is born with a nature to bark.

And you know that every dog, once it gets older, is going to bark. You don't have to teach the dog to bark, it just will.

Even as they're little puppies and can't do it yet. But once they get older, they will bark, because it is in the nature of a dog to bark.

You don't teach a dog to bark, you probably have to teach it to be quiet. But it is in its nature to make that noise.

And so it is with each and every one of us that we are born with a nature to rebel against God, to go our own way, to desire our own things, to want to do stuff that we think pleases us.

And in so doing, rebelling against God, as though to point the finger at God and say, I know what is better for me than you know for me.

And this is our rebellious, inherent sin nature that we all have.

For that sin nature, because of our rebellion against a holy God who created all things, what do we deserve?

We deserve judgment. We deserve death. He is holy and righteous, and we are not.

And it is the great blasphemy of the universe for us to say to the one who has created all things and holds it all in his hands,

I know better than you do. And so what we deserve for that blasphemy is judgment, eternal separation from him, death, hell, even eternal punishment itself.

He is an eternal God, we would eternally rebel against him. So what would our punishment be but eternal?

And yet, now having heard that news, there is good news for the one who recognizes that what we deserve is death, and that good news is now the gospel.

But God, as said in Ephesians 2, though we were dead in our trespasses and sins in which we once walked, he didn't leave us dead in our sins, but he made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.

For all those who believe in Jesus, who died for us and rose again from the grave, the judgment of God is not upon us anymore.

But instead, all of the benefits and blessings of his love. That instead of perishing in judgment, which is what we deserve, we have been transferred from that kingdom of darkness that is coming into destruction to the kingdom of light, which will be forever with God.

And now having come to faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, we now have everlasting life.

Though we will still die, because everything in this world that is part of this world that is subject to the curse that God has placed upon this world, is going to perish, so will our bodies die.

But we will reign forever with God, our souls will rise to live forever with him. And then one day by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, as said in Philippians 3, he will even transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body, and it will be made imperishable just like him.

We have life after death, we have forgiveness of sins, we have fellowship with God, right standing with him through the declaration of the gospel, that's what makes it good news.

You are no longer under God's judgment for those who believe in Christ, but you are now in his favor.

This is the good news, that God sent a way for us to be reconciled to him, to be rescued from our sin, to be made righteous before him, and to be in his good pleasure, and this is why the gospel is called good news.

And this good news is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

What do we mean when we read that it is, therefore, the power of God?

In 1 Corinthians 1 .18, the apostle Paul makes a very similar statement, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

And you can still experience this just by going out into the world and sharing the message of the gospel with somebody else.

What is the gospel? Why do I need to believe this? Well, because you're a sinner in need of a savior, and God sent that savior,

Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins. People are going, what religious mumbo -jumbo?

Why would I ever believe in such a thing? And so even they mock this very concept of Jesus having to die on the cross for our sins.

You'll encounter religious people. You'll encounter those who preach or who teach in seminaries, people who preach in churches, people who make

YouTube videos. Everybody would fancy themselves a teacher. They will even mock this very idea of Jesus having to die on the cross for our sins.

Very concept of the wrath of God burning against us, and Jesus dies in our place taking the wrath of God upon himself.

I can't even tell you the number of teachers now that I've heard say, well, this is just cosmic child abuse.

How absurd is that? They're making fun of the very nature of the cross itself.

They're making a mockery of it. They would call it folly to understand the cross in such a way.

Because, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 118, they are among those who are perishing.

And so they don't see the power of God in the work of Christ and his cross. But to us who are being saved, we see the cross as just an unbelievable demonstration of God's love and his mercy toward us, where Christ takes our sin upon himself for our sake and gives us his righteousness.

As I quoted to you last week from 2 Corinthians 521, for our sake, he became sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Our sins were taken upon Christ, who died in our place, and his righteousness given to us, that we might live righteously before him.

And this message, the word of the cross, when we partake of the

Lord's table, as Paul will talk about in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, it is said as often as you eat this bread and drink of this cup, you proclaim the

Lord's death until he comes. Hearing of the gospel week in and week out does not get tiresome for us, we are not weary of it.

We're not bored with this message because we understand it as being the very thing that has brought us to salvation.

It is good news for us. We cannot wait to get to Sunday, when after we've gone through a whole week of going to our secular jobs and talking with people who would not have anything to do with the gospel, though we might have shared it with them, and yet they would continue to mock us.

And we feel outcast, and we feel as outsiders, and there's a struggle that exists in our flesh of longing for something more than and beyond whatever it is that we experience in this world.

And we come to Sunday, and we can't wait for Sunday because now I'm with the people of God again, and I get to hear the gospel once again.

I get to hear the reminder that Jesus died for me, that he rose again for me, that he has prepared for me a place where I will dwell with him forever.

And it makes the things that we go through and we experience in this world a little bit easier to tolerate, knowing that there is this great thing that God has done for me and has prepared for me and is waiting for me on the other side.

Listening to Ray Comfort do presentations of the gospel, the way that he does evangelism,

I remember him sharing this particular illustration of a man on an airplane wearing a parachute.

And he's been told, before he gets on this plane, that at some point during your flight, the plane is going to crash.

But here's this parachute, because when the plane starts going down, the parachute will save you.

And this is his illustration of the gospel. Somebody's given the gospel, everything's gonna crash, everything's gonna come down, but here's the gospel that's going to save you.

So this man is wearing his parachute, and it's very uncomfortable for him to wear the parachute. He's sitting in his seat on the plane wearing the parachute.

Everybody's making fun of him for wearing the parachute. And it's a little harder for him to sit in this seat than it is for anybody else who's not wearing a parachute.

It would be easier for him to just take the parachute off. Then people are not ridiculing him anymore, and I can sit a little more comfortably in my seat.

But nonetheless, he doesn't take the parachute off, he clings to it.

He makes sure those straps are on there tight. He's ready to go the moment the plane starts going down.

And even when somebody bumps into him or crashes into him or somebody makes fun of his parachute, it doesn't make him resent the parachute anymore.

In fact, it makes him love it more because he knows that this parachute is going to be the thing that saves me when this plane is going down.

And so it is for us with the gospel. For those of us who follow

Jesus, who have put our faith and trust in him, we're gonna be ridiculed by the world for this.

But we're not ashamed of that. We're not afraid of it. In fact, it makes us love the gospel even more.

Because we know that once judgment comes upon this world or I die, whichever one of those things comes first, that I am gonna be saved out of this world.

And it's gonna be the very gospel that is the power of God that saves me from the judgment that is coming.

And so I hold on to that. I cling to that. It is not inconvenient for me.

Because it is that wonderful, beautiful reminder of God's love for me.

And that he is delivering me into a place far greater than this thing that we endure and go through now.

And every bad thing that happens to us, my friends, may it make us cling to the gospel more.

It makes us long all the more for the reward that is coming on the other side.

The gospel itself being the power of God to transfer a person from death to life.

Because you understand, as the scripture says, as we had studied even from Ephesians 2 just a couple of months ago, that all of us are dead in our trespasses and sins in which we once walked.

So the state of every single person, though your body may be alive in the spiritual state of things, you are the living dead.

You are walking dead, men and women. Because of your sins and rebellion that you have committed against God, you are going to be judged to destruction if you were to continue in that way.

That is the condition in the default state of every person born in their rebellion against God. But it is through the gospel that something else has happened.

Something has changed about you. Whereas previously you were dead, through the gospel you've been brought to life.

A miracle has happened in the life of every single Christian. And that we were once dead and destined for destruction, and now through the gospel we've been brought to life and are destined for eternity.

That is a powerful exchange that happens in the life of a believer.

And let us not ever think less of it, or scoff at that, or even shrug our shoulders at it.

Now, you may ask me, well, how does the gospel do that? Like, how have

I been transferred from this state of death to this state of life? And my answer for you there is, I have no idea.

I could say I have no earthly idea, cuz one day I'll have a heavenly idea of it. But to actually explain to you what's happened in the heavenly registry, cuz we read about in the book of Revelation that on that day of judgment, great books are gonna be opened.

And everything that you've ever done, or even said, cuz if you'll remember what

Jesus said in Matthew 12, that everyone's gonna have to give an account for every careless word they speak.

Everything's written down in those books. That's a scary thing to open. What are you gonna find when those books are open?

You're gonna be reminded of things you don't even remember doing. And yet for you, for you who is a follower of Jesus Christ, on that day of judgment when those books are open, and everything that you've done in your registry that has been kept there in those books is reviewed and read.

What that angel or whoever it is is gonna find when they open that book, there's gonna be a big red mark on it that's gonna say, to Telestai, paid in full.

And that angel's gonna look at that and go, well, you're cleared, you're in. How does that happen?

What does that look like? I don't know, but we will find out together. All I can tell you is what the scripture says.

I once was this, but now in Christ I'm this, and that is by God's power.

It is by nothing that man can do. Now consider the contrast that we're presented with here in Romans 116, the way this is said, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

Where's Paul going? He wants to go to Rome. Why? I'm eager to share the gospel with you, he says.

And then he says, I'm not ashamed of it. Doesn't matter what Rome can do to me. I know what they've been doing to you.

I've been persecuted too because of the gospel that I've been sharing in other places, but I'm not ashamed, I'm not afraid.

Jesus said in Luke 9, 26, whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him the son of man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the

Father and of his holy angels. Those that reject the gospel, those that are even afraid to speak the name of Christ because they're scared that somebody's gonna make fun of them for it.

Paul is saying, that's not me, I'm not ashamed. I'm not afraid to come and preach the gospel to you.

No matter what Rome will do to me, in the gospel is the power of God for salvation.

So that's the contrast that we have in the way that Paul has been stating here, that the gospel is the power.

It has greater power than the nation of Rome itself. We all understand the power of government.

The government has power and authority to declare you a citizen or not a citizen.

The government has power to say you're innocent or you're guilty. The government and all of its rules and regulations and everything that has been written down has power and authority to say you owe us this amount of money or you don't owe us any money.

The government can declare this land you own and here's this document and this deed proving that you own it.

And then the government can in the very same breath decide, you know what? We changed our mind, that land actually belongs to us.

There are different rules that are written in our government's books that give them power and authority over everything that we say and do, at least they think that way.

And yet when Paul comes saying to the Romans that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, he is declaring that there is a power that is even greater than Rome.

No matter what authority a government has the power to do, our own government can declare war with another government.

And they can by their authority declare that and now when one nation is at war with another nation, well, we're all at war too because we're under the headship of that particular government.

And though the government may have this kind of power, yet the government has no power to change the condition of your soul to be right with God.

We consider the United States of America to be the greatest nation on Earth, most powerful nation on Earth, most properest nation on Earth, whatever you could say about the

United States. And yet no one in the government of the United States, not by an act of Congress or anything else, not an executive order from the president, nobody can change your condition from being under the judgment of God to being in fellowship with God.

No one has the power or the authority to do that. They may take your life, but they can do nothing with your soul.

Jesus said that very thing to his disciples. Don't be afraid of the one who can destroy the body and then after that can't do anything.

Fear the one who after destroying the body also has the authority to destroy the soul in hell.

Yes, I say fear him. Jesus, by the way, the most fire and brimstone preacher that there ever was.

The only power that there is to transfer our state from hell bound to heaven bound is

God. And he does that through the gospel and he promises that to everyone who believes it.

It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

First of all, being the power of God. Secondly, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

Salvation meaning what? What are we being saved from? I so appreciated when

I was growing up and coming to an understanding of what the gospel is, hearing that question asked over and over again from R .C.

Sproul when I would listen to him. I think he was the only teacher that I can remember growing up listening to who would say, saved from what?

And it was such an important question to me. Even as I'm growing in my understanding of what the gospel is and my need for a savior, what exactly am

I being saved from? When I call him savior, what does that mean? It means that I'm under God's wrath and under his judgment because of my sin and rebellion against God.

And Jesus is saving me from what I deserve. I am actually being saved from God himself.

For God himself. Saved from God for God.

Because what I deserve is wrath and judgment. And yet what I receive is his love and his grace.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation. And this is granted to everyone who believes.

In Ezekiel chapter 33, God talks about the watchman that is on the wall.

And there's a watchman that is positioned there and his purpose is to warn the city of the danger that is coming.

And God says to Ezekiel, if the watchman sounds the alarm, he blasts the trumpet, he warns the people, here comes the sword.

And the people don't listen to the trumpet blast, then they are responsible for their own deaths.

But if the sword is coming against the city and the watchman doesn't sound the trumpet, he doesn't sound the alarm, and the sword comes against the people and those people perish, then the watchman is responsible for every life that is lost and their blood is on his head.

Who is the sword that God is saying is coming upon the land that the watchman must warn about?

It's the judgment of God. Because specifically what

God says there is in Ezekiel 33 is, when I bring the sword and the watchman doesn't warn, then all of their blood is on his head.

The requirement will be upon him for he did not warn the people that judgment was coming.

It doesn't mean that the people are innocent. They still receive the judgment that they deserve, but they were not warned.

And where is that warning supposed to come from? When it comes to the judgment that is going to come against this world, it is the responsibility of all of us within the church who know the danger that is coming, who know the judgment of God that is going to pour out on rebellious man for his wickedness.

We have that responsibility because we know to therefore warn the world that judgment is coming and the only way to be saved, the only way to receive salvation from the righteous judgment of God is to believe in his righteous son who died in your place.

This is salvation to everyone who believes. That's one of the most amazing things about the gospel.

In fact, it's one of the things that makes the gospel the gospel is that we don't do anything because we couldn't do anything.

Everything we did is the reason why we're under judgment. And as Isaiah 64, 6 says, even your best deeds are as filthy rags before a holy

God. You can try to do good, it's just more filthiness. I don't know if you've ever just had your hands caked with mud before and you're trying to wipe all of that off and it doesn't come off.

It takes some sort of outside agent to get all of that gunk off of your hands, soap or whatever else.

It's just like we take that sin and filth that we're all guilty of and we just smear it around and that's all we do.

None of our good works are ever going to cleanse us. It is only Christ who cleanses.

And to everyone who believes in him, by faith in him, we've been cleansed of all unrighteousness.

1 John 1, 9, if we ask forgiveness for our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It is Christ who cleanses. And as said in Ephesians 5, it's through the washing of water with the word.

Romans 10, 17, coming up later on, faith comes from hearing and hearing through what?

The word of Christ. The word is proclaimed to us and by faith, by believing in that word, the power of God has worked in our lives in such a way to transfer us from death to life.

The dead has been brought to life. Because we had faith in the gospel.

And again, it's just the wonderful, beautiful thing out of God and his grace for us that he has done for us.

That his requirement of us is simply that we would have faith and believe. There's nothing you can do.

There's nothing that you must do. There's nothing you're even capable of doing to save yourself. God saves.

You must have faith. And in faith, we have been saved. And that again, being part of the gospel, that it is salvation to everyone who believes.

Consider these words from the Lord in Psalm 75 verses 6 through 8. For not from the east or the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up.

But it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.

For in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed.

And he pours out from it and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.

By the way, when Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane and he's praying to the Father, Father, let this what?

Cup pass from me, not as I will, but as you will. The cup that Jesus was praying about was that one right there in Psalm 75.

The cup that is filled with God's wrath that he will pour out on the wicked.

And Jesus drank it for us when he died on the cross for our sins.

And so through the gospel, we are saved. Saved from what? Saved from the judgment of God.

Are we saved from our sin? Yes. Are we saved from the wages of sin, which is death?

Yes. But most of all, and most importantly, we are saved from the judgment of God that we deserve because of our sin.

And that is the salvation. That is the great word of salvation that we hear about in the gospel.

Being the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

Again, just the wonderful grace of God that he requires of us nothing, but that we simply believe.

And finally, so we've heard of the power of God for salvation. We've heard it is for everyone who believes. And finally, it is to the

Jew first and also to the Greek. What is with this statement? Why does

Paul include that? Well, being that the gospel was proclaimed first to Jews and then it was proclaimed to Gentiles.

Consider the commission as Jesus gave it to his disciples in Acts 1 .8. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

So where do the apostles go and preach the gospel first? They go to Jerusalem.

We have Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 where the gospel is proclaimed there for the first time. You who put the son of God to death by the hands of lawless men,

God has raised him up and those who will believe in him will be those who will be saved as Peter preaches to the people there at Pentecost.

And the gospel would continue to go out through Jerusalem and Judea and all the surrounding region when persecution came upon them, especially at the stoning of Stephen in Acts chapter 7.

From that point on, Christians are scattered throughout the world and now the gospel is going all over the place. Now it is going out to the nations.

It is going out to the world. It has come now even to us today. So it begins with the

Jew first as Jesus himself was born a Jew and he went to the house of Israel, he said.

And as we quoted even this morning from John chapter 1, his own did not receive him but to those who did receive him.

Now it goes out into the Gentiles, into the Greeks, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, to those who did receive him, he gave the right to become the children of God.

So the gospel is proclaimed to these people first that God had called to himself the nation that was descended from Abraham.

But now it is not just a physical group of people, a certain ethnic group, but that the message of the gospel would go to all people in all nations.

And we would in fact become a new nation in Christ as talked about in 1

Peter 2, 9. You are a holy nation, all of those who believe in the gospel of Christ.

So though we all live in respective nations, we might live within certain borders and be subject to certain rules as we are going to read later on in Romans chapter 13.

Even these governing authorities have been appointed by God, the nation that we ultimately belong to is

Christ's. It is his kingdom over which he reigns.

He reigns over everything, absolutely, but it is in this kingdom in particular where Christ is our king and we are his subjects.

And he has instructed and commanded us with his laws that we would desire to obey his commandments.

Jesus said to his disciples in John 14, 15, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments.

And once again, as I said last week, and it's necessary for us to make those law gospel distinctions, the works that we do do not save us, but the works are going to be the evidence that we are saved.

If we have been saved in Jesus Christ, then we will live a different way than we lived before under the judgment of God that we deserve.

Now, as we are part of his kingdom, we will live as his subjects, obeying his commands, doing as Christ has instructed.

And we look forward to that day in which we will hear the Savior say, well done, good and faithful servant, now great is your reward.

My job as a pastor is simply to prepare you for that day that we may all stand before God together.

And praise him for the work that he has done. I have no power in my words to change you or to save you.

I'm simply telling you what God has said according to his word. The Holy Spirit will do the work of transformation in your heart, changing you from a person that at one point was rebellious to that word.

And now you are a person who desires to keep that word. And it's all because of the work of God that has been done in your heart.

There are many preachers out there who will take the words that we have considered today, and they will transform, try to change them into magic spells.

Repeat these words after me. And if you've repeated those words, then boom, you're saved and you're in the kingdom of God.

Now write the date in your Bible and go back to it anytime you doubt. Saying these words, reciting them a certain way doesn't save us.

In fact, the very words that we would say would also be an evidence of the transformation that has happened in the heart.

It doesn't cause the transformation. It's the effect of the transformation. That we would speak now in such a way that gives glory and honor to God who saves.

When David comes before God in Psalm 51, and he says, Create in me a clean heart,

O God, and renew a right spirit within me. David is speaking words that are demonstrating that the

Holy Spirit was already doing that in his heart. And when we recognize our own sinfulness and what we really deserve for that is judgment, we are demonstrating the work of a spirit, the work of the

Spirit of God on our hearts that has made us aware of this and has put in our heart that longing for redemption, to be saved, to be made right with God.

And praise God that happens through the power of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

It is to the Jew first and also to the Greek. My friends, one of the things that we must be very, very careful about is adding works to the gospel.

It is so very easy to do. And even in our reform circles, I encounter people who do it.

We think the gospel needs help and we need to add something to it. Here's something that you must do.

And now you can have a little bit more confidence that you've actually been saved, whether it's through the sinner's prayer or whether...

And not to say that it's not wrong to pray and ask God for salvation. We absolutely must do that.

But to say that you must say these words and then those words make you saved, that's adding works to the gospel.

Or even we take our eschatological viewpoint, which we probably have differing views of the end times even within this room.

And we'll take our eschatology and we'll mash that into the gospel. And we'll say the gospel is...

Well, it's this effect in our eschatology and it's not. It's just very simply the salvation of the soul.

We might differ on particulars regarding eschatology, but if we think that our eschatology is somehow the gospel, then we're going to change the nature of the gospel.

We must be very careful about how we handle these things. It is so easy to start sticking works back into the gospel.

And again, we need those reminders that the gospel is just simply the news that is proclaimed to us that there's salvation in Christ alone by faith in him.

And whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life.

And so can we therefore say with the apostle Paul in Romans 1 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, 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 righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, and as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

There are some times where a sermon that I preach may not necessarily have at the end of it a whole lot of application as far as, now go out and here's the things that you're going to do.

Sometimes what we need as believers is simply that reminder that we were sinners destined for hell and in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are now saints bound for glory.

And receiving that reminder that we may glorify God and now live in light of it as we go from this place into the world and go throughout our week.

Plenty of application coming up as we go through Romans, but we need these reminders of the gospel.

The very simple message of Christ who died, who rose again, who saves us from our sin.

And what a privilege it is that by the providence of God, I get to preach that at Christmas time.

So as I wrap up this message today, why don't we sing together as we've already sung this morning, but let us do it once again.

Joy to the world. You've been listening to the preaching of Pastor Gabriel Hughes, a presentation of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

For more information about our church, visit our website at ProvidenceCasaGrande .com.

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, thanking you for listening. Join us again