(Romans) the Power of the Gospel

We've done an introduction sort of, you know, looking at Romans just in the sense of the great impact that this epistle has had on men and women and people throughout all of church history. And then last time we actually looked at verses one through seven. And in those verses, we saw that Paul introduced himself.

We looked at Paul, we looked at his background and just different aspects of his life and conversion. We saw that he referred to himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Paul was a man who was completely sold out to Christ.

He did not have a will of his own. His will was surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we talked about the importance of that.

We saw that he was an apostle, one specifically commissioned by the Lord and that he was separated to the gospel that was promised before by the prophets and the holy scriptures. The gospel concerning God's son, Jesus Christ, who is of the seed of David, according to the flesh, but declared to be the son of God with power through the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. And so Paul is basically introducing himself.

Remember, he pointed out to you that he had not yet been to the city of Rome. And so he's introducing himself. Of course, they would have heard of him, but he's giving somewhat of a personal introduction.

And now, as we pick up in verse eight, he says this, he said, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers. And so, you know, as we're looking at this introduction and Paul's just, you know, talking to them about his love for them and the excitement that their faith is being spoken of throughout the world.

And then he mentions that he prays for them without ceasing. And I think that's so interesting because, as I said, Paul had not yet been to the city of Rome, so he didn't necessarily know them in a personal sense. He probably knew a few of the people, but they're on his heart and he's praying for them.

And, you know, the Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. And sometimes we kind of think, well, you know, I don't know what to pray for. Well, I'll tell you what, you can pray for the body of Christ, God's people all over the world in every nation and among every tribe.

God has his people. And, of course, we all, as God's people, need to be blessed. We need to be strengthened with might according to his glorious power.

And all the things that we need personally, we can be certain that everybody else in the body of Christ needs that as well. So, you know, rather than spending our days just sort of daydreaming about insignificant things or, you know, kind of caught up in trivial things that don't really matter eternally. May God help us to cultivate an attitude of prayer where, you know, maybe I'm driving back and forth to work or maybe there's a point on the job in the day where I'm not having to put a whole lot of concentration in.

Where I can just focus in and begin to pray for God's people. That's how Paul spent his spare time making mention of the saints in prayer. And he said, making request, if by some means now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.

For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift so that you may be established. That is that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith, both of you and me. So Paul says, I want to come to you and I want to impart to you a gift.

But I also want to receive from you something, something that God has given you. And, you know, this is I think it's a really good description of fellowship. What fellowship really is all about is a mutual sharing of the gifts of God.

So as we come together like tonight, we're coming together to worship. We're coming together to pray. We're coming together to study God's word.

But we're coming together to fellowship, to share with one another mutually the things that God's doing in our lives. And, you know, it's so encouraging when you just listen to what God's doing in people's lives. You know what I mean? This past week, I met a guy back in New Jersey and he told me his testimony.

We were in a conversation, just met him. And the guy that introduced me ended up getting on the phone and talking to somebody. So this guy and I were just standing there and he started sharing his testimony with me.

And it was a beautiful testimony. It was so powerful. And then he started telling me about a guy that he got to lead to Christ recently.

And then he's telling me about the great impact that this guy is having on other people's lives. And, you know, there I was, just he was imparting to me a blessing as he was sharing with me what God was doing. And that's what fellowship is.

It's a mutual sharing of the goodness of God, the blessing of God, the gifts of God. Paul says, I'm longing to come to you because that's what I want to do. I want to impart to you.

But not only that, I want to receive from you as well the things that God would impart through you to me. And now he says, I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often plan to come to you, but was hindered until now that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise.

So as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. Paul saw himself as a man who was indebted. And what that means simply is this.

He saw himself as a man under an obligation. He had received the grace of God. He had been entrusted with the gospel.

And now Paul says, I'm under obligation. I have this obligation to get this gospel to the Greeks, to the barbarians, to the wise, to the unwise. For Paul, anybody and everybody was a candidate for salvation.

There wasn't anybody that he looked at and thought, no, well, you know, the gospel will never work with them. Or no, it doesn't really apply to them. Everyone Paul saw as a candidate for salvation.

And he wanted to get the gospel to them. And so he says, I'm coming to Rome and I'm ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome. Now, this is an interesting statement.

Because Paul is speaking to Christians. Now, when we think of preaching the gospel, we usually think of that in reference to speaking to nonbelievers about Christ. And it certainly does have reference to that.

But it also has reference to speaking to God's people. And Paul says, I want to come to Rome. I want to come to you Christians there.

And I want to come there and I want to preach the gospel. Now, no doubt Paul wanted to preach the gospel to the masses in Rome. But he says, I want to preach the gospel to you, you believers as well.

And from this statement, it's obvious that Paul's idea of preaching the gospel includes more than stating certain historical facts about Jesus Christ to the unconverted. In his mind, preaching the gospel is more than that. Now, that is indeed preaching the gospel.

And to some degree, that's what we have in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are presenting. The case for Christ.

But it's apparent from Paul's epistles that preaching the gospel also includes. Listen to this. It also includes explaining to the converted the full implications of the facts of the gospel.

You see, that's when growth and maturity begins to take place in a person's life. We hear the gospel. Christ died for our sins.

He rose from the dead. If we confess, if we repent, we will be saved. That brings us to the point of conversion.

That brings us to salvation. But from that moment on, there, of course, is a is a growth process that begins. And that development takes place as we come to a greater and greater understanding of the full implications of the facts of the gospel.

The death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and all of the, you know, descending of the Holy Spirit and all of those things, how they apply to us. And so that's what Paul was longing to do. He wanted to get to Rome.

And what he really wanted to do is he wanted to make sure that these Christians had a strong foundation in the faith. Now, as I mentioned in a previous study, we don't know who started the church in Rome. There's no record of who started it.

There's no real record of who was, you know, the pastor over the church. Or there were probably a number of elders because it was probably spread out over the city, being such a large city as it was. But Paul, he has this concern.

He wants to go there and he wants to make sure that these men and women, that they get grounded in the faith. And that's really what it's all about. You know, Jesus said in the Great Commission, he said, go into the world and preach the gospel.

But he also said, go and make disciples of all nations. You see, there's a difference between a convert and a disciple. A convert is a person who just, you know, believes in Jesus Christ, puts their faith in Christ.

A disciple is a person who follows Christ, walks with Christ, obeys Christ, serves Christ. And Jesus didn't say to merely go make converts of all nations. He said, make disciples of all nations.

And that's where the exposition of the scriptures comes into the picture. Because discipleship happens as we come to know God through his word. And so that was Paul's desire.

He wanted to go there. You know, I can really identify with Paul on this point. Because I remember the prospect of going to a place.

And it was London for me that God was sending us to. And I just remember thinking about going there and those young Christians. Because there's not a whole lot of Bible teaching in that country these days.

And I was thinking, oh, there's so many young believers who are feeble in their faith. Who we just want to go and we want to impart the word to them. And God used us to do that.

And I remember numerous times people would come to me and say things like this. I remember specifically one lady came to me. And she said, I have learned more in this church.

She said, I've been a Christian for 20 years. And I've learned more in this church about the Lord. And grown more in him in the past year than I did in the previous 19 years as a Christian.

That's the impact of the word of God. And that's what Paul wants to do. He wants to get to Rome.

And he wants to expound the gospel to them. Now, he goes on and he says this in verse 16 and 17. He says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. For the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written.

The just shall live by faith. So notice what Paul says. He says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

You know, there is pressure. There's temptation for us to be ashamed of the gospel. And people come along and they will criticize the gospel.

They'll say, oh, that's just, you know, that's for the simple minded. Oh, that's not intellectual enough for us. And, you know, there's a pressure sometimes.

And there's a temptation that comes upon us to be ashamed. And of course, there's great pressure from Satan. And then indirectly through just the culture around us to, you know, keep silent about Jesus.

You know, don't don't speak up about Jesus. You know, keep that to yourself. Keep that inside the church, but don't bring it out here into the public.

And there's this pressure. And sometimes this temptation comes along to be ashamed. But Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

Why? He said, for it is the power of God to salvation. You see, Paul understood something that every one of us need to understand. The gospel is God's means of saving people.

The gospel itself is God's power to save a person. When you know that, you understand why the devil goes out of his way to try to keep the gospel from going out. He doesn't want the gospel to go out.

He wants to shut that down. And he's successfully done that in many places in the world. He has been able to prevent the gospel from going out through things like radio.

We take that for granted. But, of course, that doesn't happen everywhere. He has sought to keep the gospel from going out by having governments put out edicts that basically say there is no allowance for preaching the gospel.

And we'll slap you in jail if you do it or whatever. Because the devil knows that the gospel is the power of God. And he knows when that gospel gets out and comes into the ears and the hearts of men, he knows that he loses them forever.

And so he does everything to try to keep that from going forward. Paul understood that. He said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is God's power to salvation.

Now, here's the question. The question is, what is the gospel? Now, of course, we use that term and we speak freely of the gospel as I'm doing that tonight. But you might be surprised to know that a lot of people don't really know what the gospel is.

You can go to leaders in churches tonight in various Christian denominations, and you could ask them, now, what is the gospel? And do you know that there are many that could not tell you what the gospel is? You might go to certain church leaders tonight and ask them that question. And here's some of the answers that you would get. Some would say, well, you know, well, the gospel is love your neighbor as yourself.

Well, no, that's not the gospel. That's contained in the scriptures. That's the teaching of Jesus, but it's not the gospel.

Others might say, well, you know, the gospel is do unto others as you would have them do unto you. No, it's not. Again, that's instruction from the scripture.

But that is not the gospel. Some might say, well, you know, the gospel is do your best to be a good person. No, that's not the gospel either.

Others would say, well, you know, the gospel is believing in God. But that's not it either. I have a friend who came out of a Roman Catholic background, and he's a very zealous convert.

And he went a while back. He went into the Westminster Cathedral in London, which is the center of Roman Catholicism for the British Isles. And he went in and he asked the priest that approached him.

He said, you know, I just have a question. I was wondering if you could tell me what the gospel is. And the priest sort of, you know, stammered and stuttered.

And he said, well, the gospel, well, you know, the gospel, it's that it's in the Bible. And my friend said, right. Yeah.

Okay. The gospel is in the Bible. Yeah, I know.

I understand that now. But can you tell me what it is? Well, you know, it's, you know, it's the gospel. It's in the Bible, the gospel.

Yeah, that's it. He says, well, I understand it. It's in the Bible.

And I know it's the gospel. But what is the gospel? And this is what the man said to him. He said, you know, the gospel, it's just too hard to understand.

I really can't explain it to you. And my friend, you know, walked away and he told me that story later. But that's not only what happens if you go into a Catholic church.

You can go into a lot of Protestant churches and they would give you a similar sort of thing. Because the tragedy is they don't know what the gospel is. The gospel is about Christ and what he accomplished on the cross.

That's the essence of the gospel. The essence of the gospel is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the dead. His vicarious death for sin.

The fact that he died in our stead for our sins. That's what the gospel is all about. And Paul tells us that this is God's power to salvation.

You see, the life is in the seed. You know, just as a seed contains all of the life of the plant. What do you do with the seed? You just stick it in the ground.

You water it, fertilize it maybe. But the life itself is contained in the seed. So it is with the gospel.

That's, remember, Jesus illustrated the gospel by telling the parable of the sower. There was a sower who went forth and he was casting seed. And then the seed fell upon various types of soil.

And there were different responses depending on the soil. Jesus said, the sower is the son of man. The seed is the word.

Now, when you think about that, the life of the plant is contained in a seed. The life of God is contained in the gospel. And when a person receives the gospel into their life, you know what happens? The very life of God is planted into their soul.

You see, that's what Christianity is. Christianity is the life of God in the soul of man. That's a definition of the Christian faith.

It's the life of God in the soul of man. God, through his word, plants himself in our lives. And then his word begins to blossom forth.

His life begins to flow out of our life. And Paul understood that. And so that was the thing that drove him.

That was the thing that motivated him. And he said, the gospel is the power of God to salvation. Now, this is what I really want to talk to you about tonight.

Salvation. The word salvation or the word saved appears 101 times in the New Testament. You know, it's a funny thing.

There are a lot of people today that in the church, certain segments of the church, they don't like this word saved. It's too radical. I was talking to a guy recently.

As a matter of fact, this guy was the US manager of the Beatles, and he was the president of Apple Records. And through a long, you know, story, he came to know Christ. And so he goes around today, and he shares his testimony, and he kind of shows his Beatle flicks and all of that.

And then he, you know, he tells the story of how he came to Christ and all that. But he was telling me, I was talking to him a few weeks ago, and he was telling me that he's been going to some different places. He says, you know, some of the churches I go into, he says, you know, they're saying to me, hey, you know, what you're doing is really cool, but could you not use the word saved? Could you just sort of tone that down? You know, that's a little bit too radical for us around here.

You know, can you find a different term? He told me that. And then, interestingly, about a week later, I'm reading an article on one of these newer movements in the church. It's called the Emerging Church or the Emergent Church.

And these guys are all into changing the church's vocabulary. They say, you know, the terms we use are undiscernible to modern or postmodern man. And so we've got to come up with new things.

And one of the things they encourage us to do, drop the word saved. It just, it's, you know, it's too radical of a word. Hey, you know what? It's 101 times in the New Testament.

We better not mess with it. We better leave it alone. We better keep using it.

Because what it does, what it does, guys, is it really, it really defines what's happening. You see, the implication behind saved is that I was lost. And that's the bigger problem that people have.

We don't want to think of ourselves as lost. You know, maybe we're a little bit, you know, off the beaten path, but not lost. No, we're lost.

Saved. Now, salvation, when we use the term salvation, this is something that we need to understand. Salvation, there's a threefold aspect to salvation.

There is salvation in the past tense, salvation in the present tense, and salvation in the future tense. Now, the Bible speaks of the fact that we are saved, past tense, that we're being saved, present tense, and that we will be saved, future tense. It speaks of salvation in all three tenses.

Let me give you some examples. Salvation in the past tense. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, Ephesians 2.8. For by grace, you have been saved through faith.

It's already occurred. Titus 3.5, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us already. We're saved.

Now, this is known theologically as justification. Justification means to be freed from the guilt of sin. You see, I am a guilty man before God, and my sins have incurred the wrath of God.

The moment I receive Jesus Christ, I'm justified. I'm declared righteous, and I'm freed from the guilt of sin. That happens the instant you become a believer.

The moment you put your faith in Jesus sincerely, the moment you recognize I'm a sinner, and you cry out, Lord, save me, at that instant, He does save you. He frees you from the guilt of sin. He justifies you.

He declares you righteous before Him. But then there's salvation in the present tense. 1 Corinthians 1.18, Paul says, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

Now, this is the aspect of salvation known as sanctification. And sanctification is being freed from the pollution of sin. So, you see, the moment I receive Christ, I'm justified.

And at that same moment, simultaneously, a process begins in my life. The process known as sanctification. A process of freeing me from the pollution of sin.

Now, this process is a lifelong process. And this process will, you know, sort of ebb and flow dependent upon my cooperation. This is part of the process that I must cooperate in.

I must yield. I must surrender. I must obey to keep the sanctification process going at the pace that God wants it to go at.

If I fall into disobedience, if I go into a state of rebellion or something, then I slow the process up. So, although I might be truly a justified man, I'm not looking so justified to everybody around me. Because they're not seeing that sanctification process.

They're not seeing the, you know, vanishing of the pollution of sin. They're seeing that sin is remaining in my life. And that, of course, creates a problem.

But that's what sanctification is. It's being freed from the pollution of sin. But then there's salvation in the future tense.

First Peter 1.5, we read this. You who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. So, he talks about a salvation that's yet to come in the future.

And then in the ninth verse, he says, Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Now, this is a reference to glorification. Justification, I'm saved.

Sanctification, I'm being saved. Glorification, I will be saved ultimately and freed completely from the presence of sin. That's where we're headed.

We're headed to that glorious state where sin no longer has any claim on us. It no longer has any presence in our life. It's going to be completely eradicated from our being.

That's the full implication of salvation. Now, again, the salvation is God's gift. I receive that justification.

I'm declared righteous. I can't really do anything to make myself any more righteous before God. But I must cooperate with the sanctification process in order that my righteousness before God might begin to be manifested.

In the presence of men. You see, the sanctification part is the working out of my salvation. God put salvation in me.

Sanctification is the working out of that salvation. So others around me can see it. My attitude is different.

My speech is different. I've lost my hot temper. And now I'm, you know, peaceful and loving and those things.

There's a change has taken place in my life. But this is what Paul is talking about. This is what the gospel does.

The gospel comes and it is the power of God to salvation. And here's something we need to really face straight on. If I claim to be saved.

And yet there's no demonstration of the power of God in my life over sin. In other words, if I claim to be saved and I'm still living in sin. If there isn't some alteration of my life that's occurred.

Then I have to really go back and ask myself the question. Have I truly been saved? Because the gospel is the power of God. It comes with a dynamic.

It comes with a power that comes in and sets me free. It changes my life. You see, Jesus did not come into the world, die on a cross and rise from the dead.

So we could just acknowledge that and then go on living as we've always lived. There has to be a transformation that occurs in our lives. And there will be if we truly receive the gospel.

Because it is the power of God. It is the power of God. And if the power of God hasn't impacted our lives.

Then what we have to conclude is I've never really received the gospel. Because that's what the gospel brings with it. It brings with it God's power.

And this salvation notice it's to everyone who believes. This salvation is available to everyone. You know, some people say, well, I just don't think it's fair that God would only make one way of salvation.

Well, you know, God didn't have to make a way of salvation at all. I think it would maybe we could challenge the fairness of God if there was no way of salvation. Or if the way of salvation was only for a certain category of people.

But I don't think we could ever charge God with unfairness simply because he's made only one way. Because he's offered that salvation to everyone. To everyone who believes.

There's not a single person on the planet that can't be saved. God has made that available through Jesus Christ. Now Paul says this in verse 17.

He says that in this gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written that just shall live by faith. How is this gospel received? Well, he told us to everyone who believes and now he reminds us again. It's by faith.

You know, this verse right here, the 17th verse is interesting because this is the verse that shook the world back in the 16th century. This is the very verse that brought Martin Luther to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and sparked the reformation which changed the course of history to a huge extent. But you see what happened is Martin Luther had been looking at this verse and misinterpreting it when it said for in it the righteousness of God is revealed.

Martin Luther misinterpreted it and he thought what was being said is in the gospel. There's this righteous standard that God will accept that's being revealed and Martin Luther knew by experience it was a standard that he couldn't live up to. He knew that he would fall short of that standard and he actually felt that God was cruel because God had set a standard for salvation that was unattainable by man and he was tormented by this and he literally thought that God was a cruel God because he would he would put a standard above man's ability to attain it and then he would condemn man for falling short of it.

Martin Luther didn't realize that this isn't talking about a righteousness that God requires that's unattainable, this is talking about a righteousness that God provides for us because we cannot attain the righteousness ourself. And that's the message of the gospel. The gospel is telling us all about a righteousness that God will freely give us because we can't work for it or attain it through our own efforts.

And when Martin Luther discovered that, when it dawned on him, when the Holy Spirit illuminated his mind that that was the true meaning of this passage, he was completely set free and he was born again and he received that righteousness that God provides and then of course he went on to spread that message and the rest is history. You see, God does have a standard and it's beyond the reach of any one of us. You know, all of the religions of the world have man attempting to climb to God.

Only in the Christian faith does God stoop to man. He comes and he does what we cannot do for ourself. He takes our sins upon himself.

He dies in our place. He rises from the dead and then he says, I will give you this righteousness as a gift by you believing in me. That's the gospel.

So simple, so wonderful, so profound, so powerful. We receive it. And you know that, many of you, by experience, you know that.

I know that by experience. There was a day in my life when I received Jesus Christ. I accepted him by faith.

I embraced his gospel and something happened to me. The power of God hit my life and changed me, turned me into a different person. And I was justified that instant.

But now, some 27 years down the road, there's still that work of sanctification that's taking place. The Spirit is still working that out. I'm saved.

Yes, absolutely. I've been declared righteous, but I'm still being saved. And God is still purging the sin out of my life.

And one day, we're going to be glorified. One day, we're going to be there in the presence of the Lord. And we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. And so, think about that. Meditate on that.

Understand this. This is a place where I think a lot of people get hung up. Understand the distinction between justification and sanctification.

It'll set you free, because a lot of people don't understand that distinction. And so, they're always striving to try to be saved, sort of. You know, in their mind, they might think, well, yeah, I know I'm saved.

I said that prayer, but I'm still not sure if I'm saved. And so, I'm striving. But once I understand that justification means that I'm saved, I stop striving to be saved.

I rest in the fact that I am saved, and I let the Spirit of God do that work of sanctification in my life. You see, I'm resting, though, in the finished work of Jesus. The moment you believe in Jesus Christ, you're as righteous as you can possibly be positionally.

You see, that's the distinction there. There's a positional righteousness and a practical righteousness. The moment you believe in Jesus, the instant you believe, you're as righteous as you'll ever be, because you have the righteousness of Christ imputed to you, and you could never improve on that.

You couldn't add to that. It's the perfect righteousness. Positionally, that's how God looks at you.

But we look at you differently. We look at each other differently. And that's where the practical aspect of salvation comes in through sanctification.

And then, as that process works itself out, we see it in one another's lives. Oh, yes, I see the salvation at work here. I see that sanctifying process.

And one day, we're going to all be in that place where sin is no longer even present in our lives, but we're completely set free from that. But as we journey toward that, God's given us his grace. He's given us his spirit.

And he wants us to be growing more and more in the likeness of Jesus as he takes us through this sanctification process. And so we need to just allow him to do it. We need to surrender to him.

Going back to what we talked about previously, just that whole mentality of a bond servant. Lord, I'm yielding up to you. As I immerse myself in the things of the spirit, I do not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

And the sanctification process moves along at God's pace. Don't slow it down. Don't hold it up.

Let it move along at God's pace. And that glorious salvation that's ours by faith will work itself out in and through our lives and will impact others. And that's, of course, what the Lord wants to do with us.

Lord, we thank you for your salvation. And Father, we pray tonight, if there are any that have joined us this evening that have never received your gift of salvation, maybe they've been trying to work their way into favor with you, not totally understanding that it's a gift. We pray that tonight they would open their hearts and receive that gift of salvation, the power of God that will transform their lives, making them a new creation in Christ.

So do that, Lord, in each heart. Do that, Lord, work in our hearts. Continue your work of salvation in the present tense, Lord, sanctifying us, making us like yourself.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.