Living A Life Without Regret - [Romans 1:14-17]

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Well, good evening You know There's one thing
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I hate. It's the old switch. Oh change. Oh That's what I did. This is a it's a pleasure for me to be here this evening and I hate to break up all the the
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Christmas thing. I had a couple things that I I did on the internet some research and whatnot, and I was all set with all kinds of Christmas things, but Just a couple of facts.
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Did you know here's a myth for you? Did you you often hear that there are more suicides this time of year than any other time?
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It's not true In fact Christmas has one of the lowest suicide rates, you know for what that's worth write that down mark it
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Was interesting too because I did a lot of stuff on other civilizations and their their
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Kind of their mother child cult things and how many of them had birthdays that are celebrated on December 25th
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So for whatever that's worth But we're not gonna be in Isaiah 9 tonight because I felt like that message was about 40 % baked.
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So We're gonna be in Romans 1 tonight Romans 1 verses 14 to 17 a little bit of a change from Isaiah Yeah baked and switched
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Romans 1 we're gonna be looking at verses 14 to 17 And I don't know if you remember
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I Check now once before You know what? I love this passage.
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This is a great passage and I I'm thrilled to be able to preach it
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Just goes right with what we've talked about today from Sunday school where we talked about evangelism from what
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Dave was speaking on this morning when he was preaching about the narrow way in Matthew 7 and tonight we're gonna be talking about Well, I've titled this message living without regret because of the
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Because of the application but we're talking about the power of the gospel the power of the
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Word of God to change lives And that is the heart of what every
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Christian What with our lives should be about it's the heart of what this church is about And I think it's what our heartbeat should be during this whole holiday season
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So let's turn to Romans 1 and beginning in verse 14, I'm going to read
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I Am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians
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Both to the wise and to the foolish Thus for my part.
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I am eager to preach the gospel to you. Also who are in Rome? For I am
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NOT ashamed of the gospel For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the
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Jew first and also to the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as It is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith
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Now several months ago as we looked at verses 8 through 13. We looked at Paul's three attributes that he demonstrated as he
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Candidated as it were if you recall Romans in essence was it might be the first Missionary letter in the history of the church because Paul's purpose he had a few purposes in writing
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One was to kind of tell the Roman Church about himself and about his ministry and about what he believed and about what the gospel was
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But he also wanted them to support him. He kind of was gonna go from Jerusalem in the
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Middle East he was going to go to Rome and then he hoped to go further on to Spain and administer the Gospel there.
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So when he wrote this gave them a lot of instruction a lot of you know, maybe the
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The best most complete Theological tome we have in the entire
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New Testament, but he did all that As a means of one of the reasons was to raise support for himself on a mission trip to Spain So while he was doing that and he had to introduce himself and we looked at his back in verses 8 through 13 his thankfulness his prayerfulness and his humbleness or his humility and If you call then
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I compared the situation that he found himself in presenting himself to a church that he had never met With a with a situation that you all might find yourselves in someday presenting yourselves to a church full of people that you don't know by developing and exhibiting these three characteristics
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You elicit trust from those with whom you desire to minister anytime you show up in any church around the world if you exhibit these three things thankfulness prayerfulness and humbleness or humility
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It's easier to get plugged in in a ministry But tonight we're going to look at the very heart of the book of Romans this great book that Luther called
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The very purest gospel. This is for sure a mountaintop passage in his autobiography
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Billy Graham Tells about a conversation he had with John F Kennedy shortly after Kennedy's election
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On the way back to the Kennedy house the president -elect. He wasn't yet in office stopped the car and turned to me
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He asked Billy Graham, do you believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ? Billy Graham said
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I most certainly do JFK said well does my church believe it?
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Billy said they have it in their creeds JFK said they don't preach it.
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They don't tell us much about it. I'd like to know what you think Billy says
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I explained what the Bible said about Christ coming the first time dying on the cross Rising from the dead and then promising that he would come back again
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Only then I said are we going to have permanent world peace? Very interesting
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JFK said We'll have to talk more about that someday and he drove on Sometime later the two met again at the
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National Prayer Breakfast. I Had the flu Graham remembers After I gave my short talk and he gave his we walked out of the hotel to his car together as was always our custom
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At the curb, he turned to me Billy could you ride back to the White House with me?
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I'd like to see you for a minute Mr. President, I've got a fever. I protested not only am
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I weak, but I don't want to give you this thing Couldn't we wait and talk some other time It was a cold snowy day and I was freezing as I stood there without my overcoat
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Of course, he said graciously But the two would never meet again later that year
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Kennedy was assassinated and the evangelist Billy Graham comments
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His hesitation at the car door and his request haunt me still what was on his mind?
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Should I have gone with him? It was an irrecoverable moment an opportunity gone by Now I'm not here to dog
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Billy Graham tonight Clearly, dr. Graham's failure to present the gospel did not determine
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JFK's ultimate ultimate fate Whether he went to heaven or to hell Nevertheless Dr.
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Graham is filled with lingering regret over this incident. I use this illustration because I Believe that our text this evening lived out to its fullest will allow you to avoid having similar regrets
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This evening we will draw from Paul's description of his own ministry to imperatives to commands
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That you must apply to your own lives and to your own ministries in order to faithfully discharge your responsibilities as a herald before God These are two commands that you must comply with in order to have a biblical ministry and to display a biblical worldview
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We've talked about a biblical worldview in our class on Thursday nights What is it that separates a pagan worldview from a biblical worldview?
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Any thoughts on that? What is it that separates us? The word we have hope
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I think that's the number one thing Definitely the word why because we have a different standard, but we have a hope that is not based on any conditions
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In fact had we gone to Isaiah 9 That's the primary message there the
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Israelites actually Judah was in a desperate situation and It just couldn't get any worse and in fact
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What that prophecy in Isaiah does is it is an offer of hope and not hope in this world
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But a hope that cannot be taken away a hope of a future reign of Christ But we have hope and the world doesn't have that and how we live our lives daily demonstrates that we have that hope and When we are willing to put ourselves out when we are willing to extend ourselves when we are willing to give
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People the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ we display that we actually believe what the
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Bible says we display that we believe when it says that The the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone
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That's what we believe when we do that when we evangelize when we go out there But first the first thing that you must do is you must sense your obligation to proclaim the gospel
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Look at verse 14 Paul says I am under obligation Now are we under the same obligation?
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Well, Paul had a special calling Paul was a missionary Paul Paul you might say well
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It's not fair to even compare me to Paul because not only did Paul write a lot of the New Testament But Paul had a special appointment a special visitation as it were not many of us.
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None of us Are on the road to Damascus and meet up with the risen Lord Not many of us are driven to our literal knees before the risen
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Savior But we do have that obligation as we talked about this morning in Sunday school every single person.
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Not only is responsible Based on the Great Commission Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20, but also what
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Peter says When he talks about that, we should always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks
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And What do we defend? What are we defending? We're defending this hope that we have because again
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Peter was writing to people in persecution Peter was writing to people that were in difficulty and we're going to experience more difficulty things were bad and they were gonna get worse and he says take heart and While these things are happening to you.
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I want you to be ready to explain why it is that you can suffer and you can suffer well
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So our obligation is without question to To proclaim the gospel to give the good news
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Now, why does the text say that Paul was under obligation?
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Well in one sense he was under obligation because he had been freed from sin. Now, is that any different for any of us?
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When we read and I love Romans 6 the whole book of Romans is so great, but Romans 6 talks about Listen, you want to talk about free will and I'm not here to debate that tonight but if you want to talk about free will you read
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Romans 6 and it says you Every single person you were in Slave you were in chains you were in bondage to sin before Christ.
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Is that a free will? It's absolutely not a free will and it's because of this
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Freedom that he has been given that he is under obligation. All of us are Romans 6 18 says and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness
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It's a better deal. You can sin sin sin and be in bondage to sin
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Have your eyes blinded You can have your ears stopped You could be on that broad road to hell and destruction or you can be freed from your sin
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You can be filled with joy You can be assured of your salvation you could be on the narrow road that leads to heaven and In that same sense that sense of being a slave of righteousness.
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We are all under obligation In fact Romans 6 22 says that we are enslaved to God.
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We are God's slaves Every one of you ought to come to the gospel with the same awe
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Excitement and obligation that Paul felt. I mean think about it. What do we?
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What could be better? I mean Paul was running around. He was persecuting the church he had a vendetta a vengeance a mindset of destruction and hatred toward the people of God and The Lord set him straight and what did he say from that point forward?
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It's not like oh, I can't believe I have to go evangelize and it's 20 degrees in a
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Worcester and there's ice on the ground. It was a joy Why?
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Because for or from whom meant much has been forgiven What then there's that joy that goes with it if you owe a billion dollars and somebody pays that for you you like that person that paid that billion dollars for you and Christ did much more than pay a billion dollars
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What he paid cannot be repaid our obligation our burden our
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Desire ought to be to serve Christ for the rest of our lives bond servant is a term
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That's often used Paul uses it Peter uses it James uses it and it means a voluntary slave.
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Well, we are Christ's slaves We are bond servants The question is do we act like it?
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Are we obedient in that sense? Even back in Romans 1 1 where Paul says that he is set apart for the gospel of God, aren't we?
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Isn't each of one of us set apart for the gospel of God? Isn't that our obligation as we talked about in Ephesians 2 8 and 9 this morning if God gave us the faith if he
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Granted us the grace Necessary to be saved and he says look I expect you to do good works that I have set out beforehand
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For you to walk in aren't we under obligation aren't we set apart for the gospel of God?
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don't we live here and breathe here and exist here solely for the purpose of bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to this world and More importantly and compellingly for Paul in this context.
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He was under obligation because he had been specifically entrusted with the truth
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Romans 1 5 says through whom we have received grace and Apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the
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Gentiles That was his work. His life's work was to do that it was the purpose of his apostleship that he be an emissary that he be an
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Ambassador as it were a messenger to the Gentiles bearing the good news of Jesus Christ to all the
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Gentiles He says in 1st Corinthians 9 16 for if I preach the gospel
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I have nothing to boast of for I am under compulsion For woe is me if I do not preach the gospel
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Do you have that same sense? Do you even think about what Billy Graham feels when he thinks about JFK knowing that it was
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God's sovereignty? But they just can't help but be a little regret there. We need to be about our father's business
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The Weight of Paul's apostleship was such that he was grieved if he was not faithful in preaching the gospel
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Do you ever have that sense that you may have missed an opportunity? Do you ever think man
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I should have done that why didn't I I I'm here to guarantee you because I've seen a
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Few people come to Christ in my lifetime. God has been gracious and I have yet to see anybody with a neon sign flashing over their head saying to preach the gospel to me
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I really want to hear it. This is the moment that God has chosen for me to come to faith In fact when
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I think about the times that I have seen people come to faith it was always over their objections They didn't want to be a
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Christian. Maybe they wanted to know something more about it Maybe they needed some clarification because they thought
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I'd become a total nuts Well judge that for yourself Or maybe they had rejected and rejected and rejected and I was pretty tired of preaching the gospel to him
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But they got saved. Anyway, we need to be faithful Now what's the scope of Paul's obligation?
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He says in verse 14. I Am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians both to the wise and to the foolish
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Now Who are the Greeks the Greeks were? That's the big culture there. Of course Rome was the
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Empire but Greek was that it's kind of interesting to me because you would think The Romans would establish their own language, but the basic business or language of business was
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Greek It was the language of the Roman Empire The barbarians well the
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Greeks viewed themselves as culturally superior they were the elite they were
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Just the cultural elites they were the snobs They were the guys who you know had 15 degrees from Harvard and Oxford and Yale and all the all the high degrees the barbarians
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Were viewed by the Greeks as the uncouth the unrefined the non
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Greeks They just weren't cool. They didn't speak the right language In fact to the Greek ear and where this word comes from to the
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Greek ear all those foreign languages just sounded like so much noise It was bar bar bar bar bar bar therefore the barbarians
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But they're in notice. There is no third group in other words
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You were either in the Greeks or you were outside the Greeks you were either cultured or you were uncultured
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Paul says he also had an obligation to both to the wise and to the foolish wise meaning clever capable of performing in a skillful manner
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Foolish meaning intelligent unintelligent or dull -witted Now Paul doesn't say
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I was also under obligation to the half -wits But yeah, the idea again is look.
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He says look smart people. I preach the gospel to him Not so smart people.
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I preach the gospel to him people who are educated refined Culturally elite
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I preach the gospel to him people that are the dregs of society I preach the gospel to him the point is that there is no one outside The scope of Paul's obligation is much like in Romans 8 when he goes through and he describes all the different things that cannot take away our salvation and It concludes by saying
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There's nothing created. There's nothing there's nothing. There's nothing. There's nothing There's nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ And he wants to rule out everything and he's doing the same thing here
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He says I want you to understand that there is nobody who is outside the scope of my ministry there's nobody that I'm not concerned for and in that same way we need to not think of ourselves as Too good or not good enough to present the gospel to anyone
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We have something so valuable and we have to fight that tendency to either protect it to prevent other people from getting it or Or Conversely kind of just We have to not we have to not hold back anything.
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We have to put it all out there, but Paul ultimately explains
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That his ministry is Obligated to everyone he needs to preach the gospel to everyone
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Now there are several commentators Who choose to see these groups as Gentiles only?
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But I think that there were definitely Jews in the Roman Church and Since Paul is about to agree or address all men in verse 18 and the flow of this
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Great letter. I think it's clear that the Jews are also in view here
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He has an obligation to teach to teach the gospel to anyone who will listen And we need to have that exact same attitude
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Look at verse 15 thus for my part. I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome Says he was eager to preach the gospel
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This is a result of the universal scope of his obligation He wants he's very desirous of preaching the gospel in Rome And this is the same eagerness or longing or willingness to be of service that he expressed in verses 11 and 13 look at verse 11 for I long to see you in order that I may impart some spiritual gift his desire was a
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Burden it was a great desire that he had and it was for their own good Verse 13, and I do not want you to be unaware brethren that often
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I have planned to come to you He had his mind set on going to Rome He had a great desire to do that He had a special obligation and a special call directly from the
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Lord to faithfully proclaim the gospel You also have a special call and therefore a special obligation
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Your ministry your call is to share the gospel and it may not be as stark or as clear as that given to Paul But it is there nonetheless
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John MacArthur writes there will be times when the work does not seem very attractive.
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He's talking about preaching the gospel and Yet you will still study prepare teach and shepherd because you are under obligation to God and To those you are serving
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However, we are servants of Christ and it is a poor servant who serves only when he feels like it
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Now he was talking mostly to ministers and the pastors But how much more is that true even of you?
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whether whatever the scope of your ministry is you have a ministry and if you are part of the body of Christ you have a ministry and if you don't have a ministry then you have a
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Ministry for not having ministries and you need to have a ministry. You need to serve the body of Christ if everybody has gifts if they're all gifted then they need to serve they need to plug in and If I if I come into a situation where I think you know
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I probably should preach the gospel of this person, but I don't feel like it. I'm not up to it today.
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I don't feel well Whatever the excuse is that is not obedience that is sin
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We need to be prepared to serve prepared to preach prepared to share prepared to witness
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However, you want to look at it. Our obligation is to proclaim Christ Well after you've first sensed your your obligation to proclaim the gospel
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You must secondly seize your opportunity to do so look at verses 16 and 17
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For I am NOT ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the
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Jew first and also to the Greek For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written
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But the righteous man shall live by faith You must proclaim the gospel firstly without shame
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Paul says that he's not ashamed of the gospel and that's connected to verse 15 Where he says he's eager to preach the gospel and he's also not ashamed of it.
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I Mean think about it. Why would he be eager to preach something that he was ashamed of? Now did he have a reason to be ashamed of the gospel?
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the Greek verb to be ashamed means to experience a painful feeling or Sense of loss of status because of some particular event or activity a painful feeling or sense of loss of status
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What did that happen to Paul? that was his whole post conversion life a
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Painful feeling or sense of loss of status. I mean if he cared about status Everything he had was gone
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He could have been ashamed of his own life But he couldn't be ashamed of the gospel because that's what had transformed his life 2nd
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Corinthians 11 23 to 27 Paul talks about the impact of serving
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Christ on his life He says are they servants of Christ? I speak as if insane.
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I More so in far more labors in far more imprisonments beaten times without number
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Often in danger of death Five times I received from the
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Jews 39 lashes three times. I was beaten with rods Once I was stoned three times
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I was shipwrecked a night and a day I've spent in the deep I Have been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers dangers from robbers dangers from my countrymen dangers from the
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Gentiles dangers in the city dangers in the wilderness Dangers on the sea dangers among false brethren.
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I have been in labor and Hardship through many sleepless nights in hunger and thirst often without food in cold and exposure
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Beaten to a point near death whipped to near death Stoned I mean they take they didn't take little pebbles and throw them out
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They were big boulders and they threw them at you. He was shipwrecked
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Swam in the deep sea, that's what it means when he spent a night and a day in the deep Guess we'd have to presume that wasn't without or that was without a life preserver
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Long periods of time without food or anything to drink exposure to the elements Didn't he watch
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TVN didn't he know that the Christian life was about health wealth and prosperity. What was he doing?
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He made all these mistakes Every one of these things
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Paul Suffered for the furtherance of the gospel in obedience to Christ. He was willing to go through anything for the furtherance of the gospel and It wasn't just that he suffered these things and he grumbled about it.
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He was eager to do so What was his perspective his perspective was this look
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I have a given number of years Many of which I squandered in fact worse than squandered
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I was a persecutor of the church and now with what God has given me from now until the day
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I die I'm going to spend every day every ounce of energy. I have for the gospel of Jesus Christ That's what
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I'm gonna do. How different is
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Paul's attitude of not being ashamed of the gospel for most churches today My former pastor wrote a book called ashamed of the gospel and he decried the trend which sees churches going away from the preaching of the gospel in our churches and The tide shows no evidence of turning we have church growth
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We have seeker sensitive Churches we have the emergent church and we've had the liberal church with us for quite a while and what's the main thing?
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It's what our pastor Dave was saying this morning the idea is not to offend anybody To be tolerant to be broad -minded to be on that broad road
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But if you want to pack a church out and that's what it's all about What do you do? Don't preach the word don't give them the gospel that is offensive.
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That is a stumbling block That's gonna send them running for the aisles Now, how about you?
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Have you ever been ashamed of the gospel you ever been ashamed to proclaim the goodness and mercy of Christ the idea again of being ashamed
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Would be a reluctance to preach the gospel because of an anticipated negative response
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What does that mean? Because somebody might not like you when they hear what you have to say and it's gonna happen if you've never lost a friend if you've never
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Had a confrontation in your family because of the gospel I Would encourage you to do that Lose a friend get severed from your family for a while.
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It'll do you good. Have you?
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Have you ever been in that situation where you knew what the response was gonna be where you knew what they were gonna do and You went ahead and you did it anyway
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And there's not a sense of pride in it. I Don't get any joy out of that But if you have that obligation if you have that fire in your bones if you know that souls
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Only can be saved from the pit of hell by the life -saving gospel. You don't hold that back you give it to them every chance you can a
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Few years ago. I received a couple flyers in the mail and They were both advertisements for Easter Sunday services
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Here are some quotes from those flyers we want to make sure that church is a meaningful experience for you a valuable use of your time a
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Meaningful experience that you don't just come into church and have your time wasted What does that imply?
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Typically people come in and man. Oh, man, if they go to a regular church where they preach the Bible what a waste of time that is
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What you really need is you need to learn some time management skills when you go to church?
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You need to be Learn how to be more effective in your job when you go to church.
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That's what you need. That'll help you Now does that sound like they're gonna preach the word?
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Does it sound like they don't want to offend anyone with the gospel the other flyer read our worship celebration features powerful music use of creative arts and an
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Inspirational message we know will touch your heart. I don't even know what that means an
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Inspirational, but I mean I know what inspirational meant when I was growing up You know, I went to the Mormon Church and what inspirational meant was just something that made you feel good it was something that just and and that seems to be what's implied here an
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Inspirational message we know will touch your heart. There will be a dry eye in the house You are just gonna love what we do
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Is that what church is about is that what we're about use of creative arts, what does that mean a skit a drama
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Some kind of you know I always like when they have the dramatic arts ministry on a web page that already lets me know what they're doing
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But if you want to learn the 18 ways to be a better neighbor The ten principles to reduce stress in your life that kind of thing
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Those are the kind of churches to go to and people are packing those churches out
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One church I know of in an area where we used to live. In fact, it was the one that sent out these flyers They have powerful music, okay
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Like I heard about this one. It's a medley of amazing grace and Peaceful easy feeling they just transition for those of you who aren't old enough to remember that song
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They just they just changed the words a little bit so that you know, they got a little holy wordage in there
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I've got a peaceful easy feeling because I know you won't let me down because I'm already standing on holy ground terrible
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Terrible but you know what it brings comfort to people they can go to church and not be confronted by the truth claims of Christ and That church by the way is
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Pastored by a man who graduated from the same seminary Mike and I went to that's why
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I tell people these days They call the church and they say hey, is there another church pastored by? The master seminary and I go well, that's no guarantee.
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You still have to go and check it out, but the same man
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Knows that some of his messages will touch your heart Because they're tried and true He bought him off the internet he was confronted by one of his elders one night and you think well that should be pretty powerful
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They pay the pastor to study He doesn't study he downloads his sermons. That should that should bother the elders.
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Oh, it bothered them. All right They voted the elder off the elder who brought it up in the first place
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Pack your bags lad. You're leaving. These are the times that we live in Spurgeon knew something about this.
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He wrote a Constantly on what he called the downgrade controversy The the watering down of the gospel and he just fought and fought against that he said when the old faith is gone and Enthusiasm for the gospel is extinct and I think it's on the endangered list if it's not extinct
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It is no wonder that people seek something else in the way of delight Lacking bread they feed on ashes
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Rejecting the way of the Lord they run greedily in the path of folly
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Well in addition to preaching the gospel without shame You must proclaim the gospel with boldness
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Note, there is a shift in focus here from Paul's ministry in the to the Romans Or his ministry and the
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Romans with the Romans to the gospel which will be the dominant theme of the book until chapter 14
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Verse 16 says for it is the power talking about the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation
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We can boldly proclaim the gospel because it's powerful it works in fact when it says the power of God, of course the word power for those of you don't know is
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The Greek word dunamis from which we get the word dynamite it is literally
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Powerful it is very powerful Morris says this the gospel is not advice to people suggesting that they lift themselves
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It is power it lifts them up Paul does not say that the gospel brings power, but that it is power and God's power at that When the gospel is preached this is not simply so many words being uttered
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The power of God is at work When we preach the gospel even as Lewis was saying this morning or he mentioned in Sunday school
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Sometimes all we do is we plant a seed But sometimes that's all God needs
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God just needs us to be faithful Sometimes we plant that seed it might take years and years and years to grow
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But God's Word does not return void. He does exactly what he desires through his
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Word The gospel is the power of God for salvation now we can argue nuances of the
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Greek But the point here is that nothing else in scripture is Ever said to have the ability to save men from hell
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Except the gospel and we could talk about Different religions we could talk about all kinds of things
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But the main point is if we don't proclaim the gospel if we don't get the gospel right
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Then we are not using the power of God. We are not giving the God -given device an opportunity to do its work
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So we must proclaim the bolt the gospel with boldness. We must be ready We must have a mindset that says
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I want to see people come to Christ I believe the gospel is the power of God and the salvation and I am going to proclaim it
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We must also proclaim the gospel universally Look there in verse 16 is the power of God to everyone who believes to the
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Jew first and also to the Greek now I heard a message in Chapel one time where the guy says listen men
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Says the focus clearly here is that we need to take the gospel to the Jews first well
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You know if you ever heard if we could audibly listen to 300 men in Seminary Chapel, we all just kind of reached up for our volume knobs and turned them down Because that was that was it.
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That's not the point here He's not saying that at all. It went to the Jews first But let me give you this word of caution here the everyone who believes
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Those people Do not come to faith on their own. This verb is a present participle and It's not implying ability.
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It doesn't say that everyone who has a desire to believe that's on whom the gospel works
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That's not what it's saying at all. It is describing something that has already happened. That's something that is taking place in them
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It is could be described this way For all the believers it is the power of God and the salvation for all the believers.
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It's describing them as they are And Paul's point is simple belief cannot be separated from the proclamation of the gospel
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We want people to believe we have to give them the life -changing
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Word of God and a proclamation like that a
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Declaration like that a presentation of the gospel demands what? somebody to be faithful to give it and And that my dear brothers and sisters might well be you
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You might be the one that God has chosen to work through It is the
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Word of God that saves whoever gets saved it is God who has to replace a heart of stone and Put in a heart of flesh.
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You can't do that But you have to be faithful to proclaim the truth Believing in the
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Bible is equated with faith in Christ Romans 10 17 says that so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the
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Word of Christ Nobody can come to faith without hearing the gospel. Nobody can Be saved apart from knowing
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Christ and knowing the truth about him 116 Romans 116 could be well said to be and you know
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It's another one of those cop illustrations. This is kind of like a Barney Fyfe verse How many how many of you are familiar with Barney Fyfe?
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Whoa unto you if you're not familiar with Barney Fyfe, but he was on a show and he was the
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I Don't know. He's the deputy, but he was not like any deputy I ever met in my life the sheriff the sheriff trusted him so little that poor old
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Barney had one bullet and He had to keep it in his pocket So if there was an emergency he could take out his gun he could put that bullet in there and then fire it
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So why do I call this a Barney Fyfe verse? Because in a very real sense, we're all Barney Fyfe there's nothing really good or slick or smart about any of us and We have one bullet we have one weapon in this war that can do anything and that's the gospel of Jesus Christ and We try all these different things
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Churches are trying every program they can think of but we have one weapon in our witnessing arsenal and that's the gospel of Jesus Christ if We want to pierce men's stony hearts if we want to break through that armor that they have
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If we want to see God give them hearts of flesh. We have only one weapon that will work and that is the gospel
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Why would we want to use plays? Videos I mean
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I Charlie crane sent an email out this week where they They decided the most relevant pastor in the
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United States is a guy down in North Carolina and the reason he's most relevant by the way is because he preaches with his iPod earbuds, you know, and they're not in his ears, which would be
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I think that'd be problematic I don't know how that would work he's also got a latte that he drinks from while he's preaching and He is so cool because he gets all the little snippets of the best videos and the best songs and that's what he uses to illustrate his sermons
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That's why he's the most relevant pastor in the United States Why would we want to do that use videos jokes lattes
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Rock bands or whatever else is needed to draw them in Pack the place out
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Triple the size of the church go to four services, whatever. Is that the point? It's not head
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Counts it's not the number of people you can pack in here that matter If we had another thousand people here and they were all unsaved
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What would the point of that be our agenda as pastor
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Mike said a few weeks ago is redemptive We want to see souls saved. We want to see people come to Christ We long to see our
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Saving God work his saving work in the lives of people and He has given us a command to proclaim his son in this work.
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That is our Goal that is our job. That is what we ought to do We only have one note one theme one bullet if you will
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People say well, why don't you ever say anything new? Faithfulness obedience does not take creativity.
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We don't have to be super Imaginative here. We just have to stick with the Bible We only know one thing and that's all that works.
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Anyway, God told us that and In this passage is Telling us clearly that that is our obligation now as to whether this whole thing about the
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Jew first and also to the Greek Has nothing to do with the fact that we should go to the Jews first it just describes that historically that's what happened and The gospel is the great equalizer
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Paul himself writes in Galatians 3 there is neither Jew nor Greek There is neither
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Slave nor free man. There is neither male nor female For you are all one in Christ Jesus And if you belong to Christ, then you are
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Abraham's offspring Heirs according to the promise, you know we also have if in Ephesians 2 where it talks about how one of the great mysteries that has been revealed to us is how
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God built this wall of separation Between the Jews in the world by giving them the law and all these regulations that they had to obey all these different dietary laws
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How were they ever going to be joined with? Gentiles and it's through Christ.
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It's joining It's this new thing. We have called the church where we all come together regardless of whether we are
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Jewish or Gentile But we also must proclaim the gospel with confidence that it is
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God's message look at verse 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written
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But the righteous man shall live by faith Now, what is the righteousness of God?
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Well, it could be better translated maybe the righteousness from God that is a Righteousness that God imparts to those who believe it is a righteousness not of our own.
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It is an alien righteousness God is inherently righteous. He decides what is right?
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And if he does not grant that righteousness to us, we have no hope Morris says in the gospel
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God has acted decisively for our salvation and in a way that is right everything
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God does is right and This really in Romans 1 is our first hint at the doctrine of justification
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Which Paul will develop? later throughout the epistle We have an imputed righteousness imputed means
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God has Accounted to us has put to our account the good works the faithfulness the absolute perfect life of Jesus Christ never did anything wrong
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Always did everything right? That's the important part, too You know, you want to know for example, what kind of table did
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Jesus make a Real good one. Why because he worked perfectly.
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He did everything he could to the best of his perfect ability And that's just what he did
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Do we do the best that we could know so what does God do God says, you know what Steve? You don't obey your mother and father perfectly
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Jesus did and at the point where you believe I'm going to I am going to account to your or I'm gonna put to your account
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Jesus perfect obedience to his parents Steve you didn't you didn't preach the gospel every time you had the opportunity
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Jesus did and therefore I'm going to put that righteousness to your account when you believe and on and on it goes
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All of our sins everything that we've ever done wrong everything that we failed to do, right?
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We get at the moment of belief we get Christ's righteousness his perfection accounted to us
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Luther and Calvin both interpreted this in 117 to mean the righteousness that avails or is of use or of benefit before God There is no other righteousness that does any good when you stand before God you say
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Look at all the great things I've done. That's not going to cut it. It has to be perfection
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Luther understood this to mean that the only way which a person becomes really good is When one is provided God's righteousness
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There is only one way that that can be accomplished There is only one message that will bring that about in anyone's life.
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There is only one saving response faith in Christ Now that verse verse 17 changed
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Martin Luther's life Why? You've all heard the story about how he struggled with sin
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Did you ever have that sense yourself? Whether as a young person I know I did when I was 17 18 years old trying to figure out how
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I was going to become a god Because that was the Mormon scheme. How was I gonna stop sinning long enough to be perfect?
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Jesus died to make under Mormonism salvation possible But I still had to straighten everything out myself.
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I Couldn't do that. I Didn't get it. I had a burden for my sin that would not go away
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Luther same thing he did all these penances he crawled on broken glass, whatever he did
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Confession all the time. It made him feel no better. He had an overwhelming sense of personal guilt and sin
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But this verse changed his life because for the first time he understood that his goodness had to be external
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It had to be imputed to him. It had to be given to him It couldn't be internal because there was nothing good about him.
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There was nothing good about anyone save God alone Works apart from faith were filthy rags and all the asceticism all the suffering of his day was just meaningless religious ritual
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Now what does revealed mean when it says it's revealed. It means it comes or it is
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Uncovered as it were it is the uncovering of God's Redemptive plan and this
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Greek verb is passive. Why because only God can reveal it only God can show it
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Men cannot discover that righteousness So the gospel reveals in some way the righteousness of God it shows us
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God's Righteousness and this is the same sense of the verb that's in verse 18.
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It's speaking of the wrath of God It is revealed just as the righteousness of God is revealed.
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So the wrath of God will be revealed in verse 18 Now about from faith to faith
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It is only through faith that this righteousness of God can be understood
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Salvation is granted through the righteousness of God Which is revealed by faith initially and finally from beginning to end it is all of faith not of works
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Now, where is it written? You may wonder. Well, if you have a little cross index there, you'll see it's in Habakkuk Not Habakkuk, which is how
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I used to say it Habakkuk 2 4 Behold as for the proud one his soul is not right within him, but the righteous will live by his faith
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Now, what does that mean? Means simply this those who have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them live with a hope attained by faith in God Not in their own works
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Not because of their own Self -imposed standard of righteousness not because they think they're good enough not because they think that God isn't really that holy
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As one writer has recently said in a song. I really like No one is good enough to save himself
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There is no higher calling that you can attain to Than to be faithful to the course that Paul lays out for himself here in Romans 1
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You must sense your obligation to proclaim the gospel You must seize the opportunity to proclaim the gospel.
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And when you do that, you must do so without shame But with boldness you must do it universally without regard
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To whether they're rich they're poor whether they're Jew Gentile Whatever the situation is and you must have complete confidence in the message of the gospel the
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Baptist confession of faith of 1689 says this The promise of Christ and of salvation by him is revealed to men by the
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Word of God alone Neither the works of creation and providence nor the light of nature revealed
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Christ and his grace to men Not even in a general or obscure way Much less is it possible by their means for men who lack the revelation of Christ by the promise of the gospel
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To attain to saving faith or repentance. Well, what does that mean? To put it quickly
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You must hear the gospel in order to be saved That is your calling to proclaim the gospel of Christ to every person that you can there is no other means by which they will be saved and You ought to seek to burn yourselves out in fulfillment of this great calling.
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What are you willing to risk? personal embarrassment The loss of a friendship when
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Jesus said That we had to hate our father our mother our sister our brother in order to follow him what did he mean?
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He said you had to be willing To forsake them and what that could mean is it could mean that you have to be willing to tell them the truth about their status
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You could have to be willing to tell them that apart from Christ they face
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Eternity in hell. No one is good enough to save himself.
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That is the message that we know That is the message that we bear and that is the message we must proclaim
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Let's pray Father we rejoice
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In that you are a God who saves sinner that you
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Are a saving God in fact Jonah writes salvation is of the
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Lord You are sovereign in salvation you are pleased to use broken pots flailed
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Flailers like us it is not us. It's not about your messengers
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It's about the message Father let us never lose sight of that Let us never lose sight of the fact that we must proclaim the gospel
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That we must proclaim that you will judge sinners That we're all sinners
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That Christ came to save sinners that he was raised on the third day and Lord that Sinners who would find grace must repent
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Lord would you just impress that on our minds as we?
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travel throughout this next week as we Go to work as we mingle with people in stores as we even stand and check out lines whatever we're doing
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Understanding that whoever we're standing next to is a soul that is going to heaven or hell
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Father just give us a burden for that So we think about this celebration of Christmas Lord, would you just impress upon us?
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the necessity of Preaching the gospel to a lost world That may have lots of nice things
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But won't take any of those with them Father make this a church that proclaims your gospel
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And not just from the pulpit, but from the pew Lord we're so thankful to see people come to Christ We're so thankful for your work in replacing hearts of stone and giving hearts of flesh
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Father would you be gracious and save many? Would you even turn? Some of our young people from their foolishness