Not Ashamed of the Gospel - part 1

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry, Miguelito Abnerot here, combining Spanish with Deutsch. Just back from Germany, Poland and Italy. I was surprised that in Warsaw, Poland, the food was so good.

I knew it was going to be good in Italy. And actually, in Berlin, I had some good sushi, of all things. I did not have a donor, though, a donor, like I usually do. Anyway, I was there teaching, preaching classes at EBTC, European Bible Training Center, with my friend Christian Andreessen.

Travel, Teaching, and Recent Ministry Updates

And then I did a preaching seminar for two days in Warsaw with my friend Tomek. And in Italy, it was just my wife and I hanging out at the Lido down in Sestri Levante. That's a basil capital of the world, that area, that region.

And so we took a pesto class, pesto from pestle, mortar and pestle, fresh basil, a little bit of pine nut, pine nuts, garlic, and maybe a little olive oil. Did we put that in there? I'm not exactly sure.

But anyway, it was very good. That was a highlight. We did go down to Cinque Terre, some of those cities. There are so many Americans down there hiking and bicycling. We just kind of stayed at the little Lido down by the beach.

The place where everyone on the beach has an Aperol Spritz, every single one. You can write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com. I will be filming, Lord willing, in the next week, a five or six-part series for American Gospel on how to teach the Bible.

So laypeople and others hopefully can learn from that. It'll be kind of a philosophy behind teaching the Bible. In terms of X's and O's, that'll be the next series, if Brandon Kimber wants it. The latest book, Chosen, is out.

Three chapters plus some appendices, and it's a book written for you to help people understand the doctrine of unconditional election. It has nothing to do with the TV series Chosen, and I've talked about that other times.

I'm working on a book, two other primers, one on sanctification, one on repentance. I'm just tired these days. Sixty-six years old, what are you going to do? Look forward to spending time with my two new grandchildren, Mason.

Haley and Marty had a little boy named Mason, and Luke and Hannah had a little girl named Evie, Evelyn, after Kim's grandmother, Evelyn. Now, instead of Grandma Evie now, it's granddaughter Evie. Today, I'd like to talk to you about one of my favorite subjects from one of my most favorite books, and that is the doctrine of—any guesses?

I'd like to talk to you about today the gospel from the book of Romans. Now, it has been said that if one generation assumes the gospel, the next generation forgets it, and then the next generation abandons it.

I think that's kind of a D .A. Carson quote, and I was traveling. I taught like 17 hours in Poland over two and a half days, and then for Germany, it was a 40-hour teaching week. I didn't teach every second.

I wasn't talking every second. Sometimes I had the students preaching, but anyway, it was a busy week or two, and being a Toledo in the pesto class. Oh, and my daughter's getting married. That's exciting.

Maybe by the time you hear this, she'll already have been married. I'm going to officiate. I think last time—well, I don't think. I know last time I officiated my daughter's wedding, a different daughter.

I walked her down the aisle. Luke, my son, asked, who gives this woman to be married to this man? And I did not say her mother and I. I did not say it takes a village. I said, I do, even though Kim probably spent more hours training up the daughter than I did, but I'm still God's ordained leader.

So I said, I do. Then I walked up, took the position of officiant, and off we went. When I was younger, I would say to the kids, Daddy will be home later. He has to go marry somebody. They're like, aren't you married to Mom already?

So then I changed it. I have to go officiate a wedding. Now I get to officiate a wedding. Young man, Dawson. I think you'll hear about Dawson here on this radio show maybe sooner than later. Maybe you already listened to it.

Maybe this is going to be in July by the time you hear this. It is Juneteenth right now. It is June 20th right now. I mean, didn't we already have enough Hallmark holidays? I don't even think Juneteenth is like a Hallmark holiday, but it's another holiday tacked on, but it's the 20th today.

Book of Romans, the gospel. Good reminder, good subject, fun to look at. You're like, that's all you do is talk about the gospel. Well, that's not true, but if you'd like to have an evangelistic heart, if you'd like to be more thankful, if you'd like to praise the Lord more, it's good to reflect on who Jesus is and the gospel.

Romans, Coleridge said it was the most profound piece of writing in existence. One man said the most profound of all the epistles and perhaps the most important book in the Bible. C .A. Fox said, unquestionably, the fullest, deepest compendium of all sacred foundational truths.

It is logical, it is systematic, it is meaty, it is doctrinal, and it is praise-inducing. Romans 11, oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.

And Paul goes on to say that in verse 36, for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. Today, we are going to talk about the gospel and or from the book of Romans.

Now, Paul writes Romans, and it says in Romans chapter 15, for this reason I have often been prevented from coming to you, but now with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you, whenever I go to Spain, for I hope to see you in passing and to be helped on my way there by you when I have first enjoyed your company for a while.

And Paul is not dealing with any problems necessarily at Rome, but I'm going to prepare you for my visit. So, here's my preparation that I want you to read and understand before I get there, and that'll help you.

Most speculate that Paul was going to use Rome as kind of a base of operations, as some have called it. And of course, if you teach the truth, it's a good repellent of error. It's an error repellent, a heresy repellent.

It's an antiseptic. It's a sterilizer. So, if you know the truth, then it's easy to see the false things. So, since Romans has a lot of questions, as a matter of fact, according to the internet, 75 to 85 questions in Romans.

This depends on how you count them. What shall we say then? Do you not know? Do you presume on the riches and kindness of His grace? On the riches of His kindness, excuse me? Then what becomes of our boasting?

How can we who die to sin still live in it? Who will deliver me from this body of death? If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Why does He still find fault?

Who can resist His will? How are they to hear without someone preaching? Has God rejected His people? Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? All questions in the book of Romans. And so, I thought it'd be good for our outline on this show and the next show, a series of questions designed for you to understand Romans better.

And if you understand Romans better, you'll understand the gospel better, and you'll understand every other book of the Bible better, and you'll understand who God is, and it will spur you on to holy living, evangelism, thankfulness, contentment, and praise.

Sound good? I think we're right there. Um, first question. What is the theme of the book of Romans?

I declare that you will live as a healer. You are sensitive to the needs of those around you. You will lift the fallen, restore the broken, and encourage the discouraged. You are full of compassion and kindness.

You won't just look for a miracle. You will become someone's miracle by showing God's favor and mercy everywhere you go.

One star for No Compromise Radio. It sounds like a man sitting in his office by himself laughing at his own jokes. Well, I'm not laughing at my own jokes. I'm laughing at Joel Osteen, and I'm laughing at Charlton Heston.

The Theme of Romans: Righteousness Revealed in the Gospel

Question number one, what's the theme of Romans? Answer, righteousness. Romans 1 16 and 17, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also the Greek.

For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, or from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. We have the gospel of God. That's the theme. If I boiled it down to one word, it would be righteousness.

Righteousness. William Cunningham, the scholar, said, the righteousness of God is that righteousness which his righteousness requires him to require. Now, it says righteousness of God, and that's something that spooked Luther.

That's something that made Luther afraid, righteousness of God. He told Duke George of Saxony, I was indeed a pious monk and followed the rules of my order more strictly than I can express. If ever a monk could obtain heaven by his monkish works, I should have certainly been entitled to it.

Of this, all the friars who have known me can testify. If I had continued much longer, I should have carried my self-denials even to death by means of my watchings, prayers, readings, and other labors.

So, here's this righteousness of God, and God is so holy and right and just. So, Luther said, we fled from Christ as from the devil and ran to the Virgin Mary and to St. Barbara, for we were taught that everyone must appear before the judgment seat of Christ with his works.

Often I was horrified at the name of Jesus, and when I thought about him on the cross, it was as if I had been struck by lightning. When I heard his name mentioned, I would rather have heard the name of the devil, for I believe that I must by my good works make Christ my gracious friend, and thereby reconcile an angry God.

So, Luther was thinking, since God is so righteous, I need that righteousness. I can never get it, and I'm a sinner, and my works don't help, and I'm in big trouble. Staupitz, his mentor, said, you need to look at the wounds of Christ.

Look at the blood of Christ shed for you. It is there the grace of God will appear. Luther said, I cannot and dare not come until God makes me better. I can't come to God until I'm a better man. Staupitz, a better man.

Christ came not to save good men, but sinners. And so, later on, Luther tells the story that he is sick, and he thought he was going to die, and it just kept coming to him over and over. The just shall live by faith.

The just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. And that is how you receive God's righteousness, is through the work of another. And we're going to get to that pretty soon. Question two. What should your attitude be regarding the gospel?

The theme of Romans is righteousness earned by Jesus. The attitude for the gospel should be one of rejoicing, proud, excited. Paul uses a figure of speech here in chapter 1, verse 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, meaning it's the opposite.

I'm using a negative—it's called a leitetes. I'm using something in the negative to have something positively stated. I'm proud of the gospel. I'm confident of the gospel. I rejoice in the gospel. Because the word gospel means good news.

And it's something that makes you sing, something that makes you have joy, something that makes you glad in your heart. Can you imagine the Israelites lined up watching David defeat Goliath, and how happy they would be, and how full of joy and merriment and mirth—I'm trying to think of the three words, mirriment, mirth, and—maybe I'm going to be a miracle to someone today.

Oh, man. How happy they would be. That's our attitude to the gospel. Not just because David killed Goliath, but because Jesus conquered death and sin and Satan and hell. We are to be prideful of this.

I'm proud of it. I'm confident in it. I'm boasting it. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. I mean, the world doesn't like Christianity. The world doesn't like the exclusivity of Jesus, this pluralistic, inclusive world, postmodern, my-truth world.

They don't like this, but we do. They might not like it that there's a crucified Messiah the Jews might want a sign and the Greeks want wisdom, but we have a crucified Messiah, and we're not ashamed of Him.

We're not afraid. We don't have shame or reluctance to talk about Him. We want to say things, and while the world hates, the MLB hates, the world is despising, we boast in this, that we understand and know God, that He is the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, righteousness in the earth, for in these things God delights.

The Gospel as Promise, Person, and Work of Christ

Number three, third question, what is the gospel? Well, we've talked about it here just a minute ago, but to flesh it out a little bit, the law is not good news unless you can keep the law. The law, first use, is to show you that you need a Savior, and the good news tells you that there is a Savior who saves sinners, who saves them as sinners, who transforms them into saints, and one day will glorify them.

The focus of the gospel is on Jesus, His person, His promises, His work, just who He is and what He's done, what He's said. And strictly speaking, no demands or conditions in the gospel, but only promises and gifts, according to Bavinck.

It's about grace. It's about what He promises. It signifies merriment. And it's already been talked about in Romans, if you go back to chapter 1, verse 1, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

So it's news, but it's not new news. It's old news, and it's promised in the Holy Scriptures, right, way back in Genesis 3 .15. It's actually promised before then, right, in the promise made between the members of the Trinity, the Father and the Son with the Spirit there, called the covenant of redemption, the pactum salutis, the covenant of peace, agreeing to go rescue the elect.

This is not new news. This is good news. This is not a break with the past. This is, as writers say, a consummation of it. Luther said, Christianity did not originate by accident or in the fate of the stars, as many empty-headed people presume, but it became what it was to be by a certain counsel and premeditated ordination of God.

The Father sends the Son to go rescue the elect. Here we see, truly man, truly God, concerning His Son, verse 3, who is descended from David according to the flesh. This is a nice little summary of the gospel and the person and work of who Jesus is.

Going back to David, I think about the Belgic Confession. I don't know if you've read the Belgic Confession, but you ought to. It says, so then we confess that God fulfilled the promise which He made to the early fathers by the mouth of His holy prophets, when He sent His only and eternal Son into the world at a time set by Him.

The Son took the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man, truly assuming a real human nature with all its weaknesses except for sin, being conceived in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit without male participation.

And He not only assumed human nature as far as the body is concerned, but also a real human soul in order that He might be a real human being. He is fruit of the loins of David according to the flesh, born of the seed of David according to the flesh, fruit of the womb of the Virgin Mary, born of a woman, the seed of David, a shoot of the root of Jesse, the offspring of Judah.

All these quotes here from the Old Testament. Made like His brothers except for sin. In this way, He is truly our Emmanuel, that is, God with us. And of course, He's the risen Savior, verse 4 of Romans 1, and was declared to be the power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Marked out as Son in power because of the resurrection. Jesus, He is the center of the gospel. Jesus, the sent one, the only begotten Son of the Father, the eternal Son. And of course, it's what this eternal Son did as He lived a perfect life in our place, died for our sins in our place, and was raised from the dead.

Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That's gospel truth. This is what God in Christ has done on behalf of sinners. Sinners. Caspar Olivianus, as I call him, Caspar the Friendly Olivianus. In the gospel, God does not demand but rather offers and gives us the righteousness that the law requires.

This righteousness is the perfect obedience of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, through which all sin and damnation made manifest by the law is pardoned and washed away. Furthermore, God does not give us forgiveness of the sins in the gospel on the condition that we keep the law.

Rather, even though we never have kept it nor will ever be able to keep it perfectly, He still has forgiven our sins and given us eternal life as an unmerited gift through faith in Jesus Christ. Blessing, grace, pardon, sins washed, not just for our lifetime, but forever, without any regard to our past, present, or future merit or piety.

To quote again, Olivianus, Spurgeon said, If our Lord bearing our sin for us is not the gospel, have no gospel to preach. The heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.

Verse 17 of Romans 1, For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, The just shall live by faith. Jesus, our righteousness. Heidelberg Catechism, question 60, How are you righteous before God?

God, without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never committed nor had any sin, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me.

Isn't that good? Aren't you glad you're a Christian? Righteousness, not necessarily of God, although that's true, but righteousness from God. We have a faith that we've obtained of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of God our Savior, of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

That's 2 Peter chapter 1. Question number four, Why do all people need the gospel? Why do all people need the gospel? Well, the answer is every sin will be judged. God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead.

What did Solomon ask in Proverbs 20, verse 9? Who shall say, I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin. Now, people might say it, but they can't say it and really mean it. We have no righteousness.

We are unrighteous. We are self-righteous, and we need a perfect righteousness. Romans 2, 6, God will render to each one according to his works. To those who practice, excuse me, to those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

I mean, if you perfectly obeyed, theoretically, you know, hypothetically, you'd get in. And I say theoretically and hypothetically because Adam sinned, and we get credit for his sin, so it's an impossibility now.

But if you could obey, why would God say, I exclude you? Or why would God punish you for obedience? Verse 8, but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

Verse 13, for it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. So Paul is trying to show that everyone, even moralists, even Jews, even homeschoolers, even good civil people, even grandmas, they all need righteousness.

Because no one keeps the law. Romans 3, 9, what then? Are we Jews any better off? Not at all. For we've already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. As it is written, none is righteous, no, not one.

And Paul begins to quote all kinds of things from the Old Testament. Not even from the Ten Commandments, but from the Psalms and other places, stringing together these verses that is called a charaz in Hebrew, kind of stringing pearls, but people say this necklace is not really a pearl necklace, it's a noose for all people, a hangman's noose.

No one understands, verse 11, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, verse 12, together they become worthless. No one does good, not even one. And then down to verse 19, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

Silence, silence that Haldane called a silence of confession, a silence of astonishment, and a silence of conviction. I offer no more self-defense. I offer no more apologies, no more rationale. Lloyd-Jones said, you do not begin to be a Christian until your mouth is shut, stopped, and you are speechless and have nothing to say.

You put up your arguments, you produce all your righteousness, then the law speaks, and it all withers to nothing. It becomes filthy rags and dung, and you have nothing to say. And we then stand before God, we hear the law.

Somebody just almost got in an accident right out in front of the church there. Not pulling out of our driveway, but the neighbor's. Wow, that was close. It's lawlessness, sin is. Sin is treason, cosmic treason as Sproul called it.

It's no longer a mistake, a weakness, addiction, disease, some kind of just failing. It's not just, my life is messy. I'm not flourishing. It's an error. It's a trifle. It's an accident. It's a defect.

To err is human. No, it's sin. And then verse 20 of chapter 3, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. And as it has been said, the harder you try to be right with God on your own, the more impossible it is.

So we believe in depravity. We believe that the mind, the will, the emotions is tainted by sin, and that a fallen sinner can't cooperate. The fallen sinner is in bondage to sin because he's united to Adam, unless God does his work through the gospel.

The Power of the Gospel and the Need to Believe on Christ

And that gives us question number five, related, why is the gospel powerful? It says it's the power of God for salvation. See, it's so powerful that it can undo all these things, and save, and forgive, and then give Christ righteousness.

That is why it's powerful, and we're going to have to talk about that more on No Compromise Radio next time. Now, this might be played on a Tuesday, so on Thursday you might get this, because Mario's YouTube is on Wednesday, but we're not exactly sure these days how this all works.

But we are sure of this, that you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to receive a perfect righteousness earned by Jesus himself, credited to you through the non-meritorious instrument of faith, faith in that risen Savior, sin-bearing Savior, all-sufficient Savior,.