"Dead & Alive" Part 1 - Pastor Raymond Woodward

would you stand and let's lift our hands and let's give god praise one more time in this sanctuary today would you lift up your hands and with your hands would you lift up your voice and let's give jesus thanks i love you god i thank you for your presence thank you jesus for your mercy and your grace thank you that we when we can't be strong you can be strong when we can't reach you can reach thank you god for every person that's here jesus i pray you would speak very loudly in this service this morning amen just as you're being seated would you uh turn around and shake hands with somebody and uh see if you can find somebody you don't know tell them your name and welcome them to the house of the lord this morning see if you can find somebody you don't know yet always so good to be in god's house if you're a guest with us today if you're visiting with us it is an honor to have you here thank you for being here and our prayer for you is that the service is a blessing to you that it helps you in your walk with god and that something that's said this morning will just strike something in you way down deep inside 500 years ago martin luther was a german monk who had been taught that god required him to live a righteous life in order to be saved and so martin luther by his own admission he said i grew to hate god because god he required of me something that i couldn't do he required of me to live righteous and i couldn't do it and he left me to fail and martin luther a monk said i hated god here's his quote although an impeccable monk i stood before god as a sinner therefore i did not love a righteous and angry god but rather i hated him and i murmured against him and martin luther's experience which may be your experience that you don't understand why god would demand that you be righteous and then kind of leave you to fend for yourself martin luther's life was changed when he came across these words in the book that we're going to open today in the book of romans the just shall live by faith and that changed everything for martin luther he almost sounded like a pentecostal he said quote i broke through changed everything and the book of romans if you want to turn there it was the fire that got lit and ignited in his heart by god and martin luther is the one that began the protestant reformation he literally changed the history of western civilization and the western world because he got a hold of a word from god and so the book of romans is really one of the most revolutionary books of all time it's an amazing book and it's kind of got the seeds of everything else that we read about in the bible in this one book and and it's right that romans should be a revolutionary book because it was written by the apostle paul he was a little bit of a revolutionary himself so today we begin a series called dead and alive not dead or alive dead and alive now paul when he writes romans he's writing during one of his missionary journeys we think he's probably in corinth but we're not sure corinth is where he started a church but now he's writing to a group of people that he's never met he's never preached to he knows a handful of them we think he may have even won some of them to the lord but not in rome he won them to the lord somewhere else and so he's writing to these people he's never met if you take a look at a timeline in the book of acts it it kind of uh looks like this if you look at paul's writing and you look at where he is and the time frame of what's going on just let me set it up for you i'm not going to take long here this isn't a history lesson but but just take a look at this right up here you see the cross of jesus that's where he died in about a.d 30. the day of pentecost happened about there and almost immediately persecution starts on the church now now let's put paul's life right here let's let's sync it up with the life of jesus paul is the persecutor of the church paul hates christians paul does everything he can to destroy this infant church and so he persecutes people and and this little skull right here we're going to see some skulls today by the way uh but but this little skull right here that represents the death of stephen the martyr and stephen when he was martyred he acted so much like jesus when they're throwing stones at him and he says lord don't lay this sin to their charge it impacted saul so much that he could never get away from it he says later years later when he's telling his testimony i was the one that held the coats of the men that stoned stephen i was the one who was impacted by stephen's death and he talks about the martyr stephen and so paul gets converted and and then um the persecution continues is not paul now and and over here paul begins to go on missionary journeys because paul is so changed by the power of the gospel that the one who hated the church and the one who persecuted the church and the one who tried to stamp out the church he is forever changed into a missionary he can't shut up about the gospel now scholars differ on on when paul died some people think he died here and never made a fourth missionary journey some people think that he did make a fourth missionary journey but one way or the other paul eventually dies at the hands of the roman empire but here's what i want to point out to you it's somewhere during his missionary journeys that he's imprisoned in jerusalem it's just before that that he writes the book of romans he's still free at this point he's been persecuted he's been chased down he's been attacked and vilified and but as far as we know he's still free and he will eventually go to rome and meet these christians but when he goes he'll be a prisoner and when he goes it will be the end of him not long after he meets these people not long after he gets to fellowship with them and preached to them the apostle paul will meet his death at the hands of the roman empire and yet he still wants to go to rome you'll read it in the opening chapter of this book he desires to go to rome paul don't you know that it's dangerous there don't you know you could die there don't you know that that all of this could happen in roman paul's like i don't care i've got to go and share with them the gospel that transformed my life this is a poor comparison but i feel a little bit like the apostle paul when i stand at this pulpit and i begin to talk to you every sunday here's what i feel like how could i not talk about the gospel that has done so much for me and so much for others and so much for many of you how could i not talk about the gospel don't you realize pastor raymond is politically incorrect to talk about the gospel today oh yeah i realize that don't you realize people think you're a little bit of a buffoon to be a pastor today yeah i realize that don't you realize that you could uh go higher and make more money and do all kinds of things that might be better for you and easier for you if you weren't a preacher of the gospel oh yeah i realized that but you know what the gospel has done so much for me that i'm compelled to talk about the gospel and by the way we don't just talk about the gospel and pulpits we talk about the gospel and coffee shops we talk about the gospel in walmart we talk about the gospel when we're sitting at a restaurant we talk about the gospel all the time because the gospel is what changed everything now paul he's writing to these people he's he's never met them uh we don't even know how the roman church got started really the best we can guess is that there were some romans that were jews that had come back to jerusalem for the day of pentecost 30 years prior to this and a few of them had gotten filled with the holy ghost got saved and they went back to rome and they must have started the church other than that we have no good guess as to how this gets started but almost three decades later there is a church in rome and and paul's interested in talking to them now he doesn't know all the issues of the church he's never met these people uh just the same as pastors stan and pulpits and they don't know all of your issues i couldn't i i couldn't give you even a rough guesstimate not within a hundred times of how many times somebody's walked out of a service and said that was just for me or that read my mail or who told you and you know why they do that because you don't have to know everybody's issues the gospel is so powerful it touches everybody's issues in everybody's life that's the gospel now um if you want to open to romans chapter 1 we're just going to kind of walk through parts of this we're going to skip parts we're not going to go verse by verse or anything but we are for a little bit in this first chapter um paul opens this gospel he says paul a servant of jesus christ called to be an apostle separated under the gospel of god now you notice right off the the bat that paul says i'm a servant the the greek word there literally means i'm a slave of jesus i don't have my own agenda jesus sets my agenda i don't have my own priorities jesus sets my priorities i'm a slave of jesus christ and then he says i'm an apostle an apostle isn't some figurehead an apostle literally was a a sent one it's like a missionary we have missionaries come by here every once in a while many times a missionary is an apostle they go into a new area and they take the gospel it literally means a sent one he said i'm an apostle but you know what i am before an apostle i'm a slave to jesus christ first and then he says i am separated under the gospel literally uh everything else in my life pales in comparison to the gospel i am separated to the gospel now here's a word that you got to understand the gospel is a a word in the greek it's you agiloi it means a good herald and what happened in that day is when uh an emperor a king a general would would conquer and there'd be incredible news from the battlefield they would send somebody back to the village back to the city back to the town and they would take good news everybody say good news so that's what the gospel means but it means a little more than good news because good news can be passive like you know you can give somebody good news and and they just look at you uh it's good news to you it's not necessarily good news to them so the gospel is actually a little bit more than just good news it means good herald it means that when somebody comes back with the good news a celebration breaks out when somebody comes with the good news there's a response and a reaction to the good news and so gospel is really a circular word it's not the gospel just when you hear it it's not the gospel just because you attend a church that preaches it it's not the gospel because you can memorize scriptures and you know about it it only becomes the good news when you respond to it until you respond to it it's not the gospel it's just good news but it becomes the gospel when we have a response and and paul uses this gospel word 60 times in his writings and and here's what he says the gospel is not good advice that you need to follow the gospel is good news about what has already happened jesus christ god manifested robed embodied in flesh he came to this earth he died on a cross he went into a tomb he rose from the dead and that's the good news it already happened you don't have to create it you don't have to you know do anything about it to bring it down it's already here it already happened but the gospel isn't advice to be followed it's a declaration of how we are to respond to what jesus did so so lock this in your spirit the gospel is a who not a what the gospel isn't a list of doctrines the gospel is in a list of scriptures the gospel isn't any of that before it was ever uh john 3 16 or acts 2 38 or any other scripture that you want to mention the gospel was a who before it was a what the only reason we have a church the only reason we're saved the only reason we have freedom and liberty and deliverance and healing and everything else is not because of a what it's because of a who and the who is jesus christ and that's why he's worthy of glory that's why he's worthy of praise the gospel is about jesus to hear some preachers talk and to hear some christians talk today you'd think the gospel was self-help for us you'd think the gospel was designed so we can add it on to our already busy lives and it could make it all slightly easier or slightly better but that's not the gospel because the gospel isn't about you the gospel is about jesus and so when you obey the gospel you're you're becoming what paul became uh you're becoming a servant of jesus christ and we get to experience salvation not because of what we do or how good we are we get to experience salvation because of how great he is and what he's already accomplished now no no notice what paul says here he says the gospel concerns jesus christ our lord he was made of the seed of david according to the flesh and then he was declared to be the son of god with power jesus the only reason he could do this for us the only reason jesus could bridge the gulp gulf between that that holy god that righteous god that martin luther grew to hate the only reason he could bridge that gulf between a righteous god and sinful man is because jesus he was the ultimate bridge he was both god and man he was human and he was divine and so literally what he did on calvary was he stretched one hand out and put one hand on heaven and he put the other hand on earth and he brought us together and i'm forever thankful for that and that's the only reason uh it could happen and it was proved by his resurrection if jesus had just been a prophet we would have heard the end of him a couple thousand years ago and people would still make pilgrimages to his tomb because he was a good man and he had good things to say like they do with every other religious leader in the world but jesus isn't in a tomb jesus because he was god manifest in flesh see every other religion says follow our teaching and we'll show you the way to god jesus doesn't say that he said i am the way to god i am the way and the truth and the life and nobody comes to the father except by me so you've got to go through jesus and that's the gospel now how do you respond to something that great because there's all kinds of different ideas but how does the bible say you respond paul said here's what we do we respond and why i'm preaching i'm preaching for obedience to the faith that's what i'm preaching for i'm preaching for obedience to the faith so it's not enough just to have this nebulous kind of belief in jesus we have to obey what the bible says we have to obey the gospel that he gave us that's what we do if we truly have faith we will obey his word today it's amazing people say well i have faith in jesus and their lives don't even resemble anything that the bible teaches but they have faith in jesus it's like martin luther said after he came in contact with romans he said quote we are saved by faith alone but real faith that saves is never alone it never stays alone there will be obedience that follows it because true faith always brings about obedience to god now paul writes to these people remember he's never met them before and and he writes to these people and the first thing he thanks god for is something that i would love for our church to be known for uh he thanks god for their famous faith somebody say famous faith he's never met them but he's heard about them he's never been there with them in a service but he's already heard about some of the things that are going on that's my prayer for our local church not that we'd be famous in the worldly sense but that people would know that god is among us and god is doing things and and we're reaching our world because of what god has done here we're not reaching the world so we can convert people to a denomination that's foolishness we're trying to reach the world so that people can obey the gospel of jesus christ and be eternally changed and paul said i thank god that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world everybody's heard about the church in rome god help us i want to be a church like that and then he tells them i pray for you without ceasing and then he tells him i want to come and visit because i want you to be established i want to help teach you because it's not enough to just get saved you need to grow in your faith and and even in a great church even in this church even for you if you've been here for 100 years and you look like my friend that i'm going to introduce in a minute everybody has room to grow and and paul he says everybody needs this gospel listen to me if you've been here a long time around the church you've been a pentecostal and that's this denomination so you think you've got it made in the shade everybody needs the gospel people outside the church need the gospel people inside the church need the gospel because the gospel is power the gospel does things for you that nothing else could do and so paul says if you go all the way down here to verse 14 he says and and that's why because of this powerful gospel it came to me and i'm a servant a slave of jesus christ and i'm spending all of my life and i'm gonna share it with everybody i know he said here's what i feel like i am a debtor somebody say i'm a debtor that's what paul looks at this like he said i'm a debtor to everybody i'm not just a debtor to the insiders i'm a debtor even to barbarians i'm a debtor to people that don't even get a clue about morality or anything i'm a debtor to everybody and and here's why paul's a debtor uh it's it's kind of uh neat if if you loan me a thousand dollars and if you'd like to i'm not opposed to that if you loan me a thousand dollars then i'm in debt to you until i pay you back and so that's one sense of being a debtor but that's not the sense of the gospel here's the sense of the gospel let's suppose that somebody else gives me a thousand dollars and when they give it to me they give me instructions i gave this to you to pass it on to somebody else i am a debtor until i fulfill that i'm not holding my thousand dollars i'm holding a thousand dollars that belongs to somebody else and so i'm a debtor to you until i obey that commission and i find you and i give you that thousand dollars and that's the sense in which paul means this he said the gospel has done so much for me and god gave it to me but when he gave it he said go into all the world and preach the gospel so paul said i owe the greeks the gospel i owe the barbarians the gospel i owe everybody the gospel i'm a debtor because here's the thing if i've been given the gospel then i owe the gospel to somebody i'm going to bear down on that because that didn't get any response and it needed a great response and the reason it doesn't get a great response is because we get comfortable in the fact that we already have the gospel and because i have the gospel i think well i'm going to heaven i guess i'm good but you don't understand you've been given the gospel and when you were given the gospel all the commands of jesus that he gave the church said you need to go into all the world you need to go into the highways and the byways and the hedges and compel them to come in because if you've been given something that's so great as the gospel is great then you are a debtor you owe the gospel to somebody else i know i make you uncomfortable by pushing on that because it's so nice in north america to have churchianity where we come to church and we celebrate the fact week after week after pointless week after endless week that we are saved and and we've got the truth and we've got the gospel and we're going to heaven and that's wonderful and i never want to stop celebrating that but that's not what jesus told us to have church for jesus told us to have church because you've been given the gospel somebody say i've been given the gospel and so you owe somebody the gospel there's somebody in your family there's somebody in your friends there's somebody at your job there's somebody in your school there's somebody in your college classroom and and they're not any worse than you they're not down here and you were up here and that's why god gave you the gospel you are a debtor to them because you've already got their gospel in you and jesus said to share it i'm going gonna stop right there for a minute i want you to lift up your hands church and i i need you to pray for a minute i don't mean that kind of prayer at all that doesn't even sound like prayer i mean i'd like you to just lift up your voice for a minute and if you dare let the conviction of the holy ghost touch you this morning because if you've been given the gospel and if you used to be an alcoholic and you know an alcoholic then you've got their gospel if you were a drug addict and you know another drug addict then you've got their gospel if you were a sinner if you were bound if your home was messed up and you know somebody else just like that then in your soul in your possession you've got their gospel and you're a debtor to them jesus stir up our church god we're way too comfortable with celebrating what we've got instead of realizing that it's somebody else's we're a debtor to them come on church one more push in prayer don't don't just let sunday morning pass you by like it's a religious tradition you got their gospel you've got their gospel if you were bound and they're still bound you've got their gospel if your life was destroyed and now you've got a friend and their life's destroyed and you say it with your own mouth and you've got their gospel i worship you jesus i worship you jesus if you're here this morning the reason a pastor named raymond would stand up here and make this whole room uncomfortable is because i got your gospel jesus has done something for me jesus has changed my life and i've got your gospel and so i'm a debtor to you and it doesn't matter what difficulties i have to go through to get that gospel to you it's the gospel that jesus gave me for you i'm a debtor the gospel was given to me and i owe the gospel to you somebody say the gospel was given to me and i owe the gospel to you that's the deal now the next verse is a strange verse after paul says all of this he says for i am not ashamed of the gospel that's that's kind of odd after he's bragged on it i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ for it is the power of god unto salvation to everyone that believes and to the jew first jesus came to the jews first and also to the greek now it's for everybody else for therein is the righteousness of god reveal from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith that's the verse that turned martin luther's life around amazing now the word ashamed actually can have the sense of being offended paul's literally saying i am not offended by the gospel of jesus christ i'm not ashamed of it people try to make me ashamed of believing something that remarkable people try to make me embarrassed or crawl back in a corner because i believe the gospel but paul said i'm not ashamed of the gospel other people may be offended by this this direct message called the gospel of jesus christ but i'm not ashamed i'm not offended by the gospel now that's kind of a hard concept to explain so i'm going to get some help to to explain this and pastor jack if you'd bring my friend fred out here because i need some help from my friend to explain this to you because the gospel is an offensive message the gospel will really uh mess you up if you think about it long enough and that's why our culture doesn't really care for the gospel come on over here fred that's wonderful now now we we considered names uh and because we have a couple of people who share his name in this congregation we did do a double take but fred rhymes with dead and we just liked it that way because that's the only problem fred really has is fred's dead say hello fred fred's dead and that's a problem and the gospel is an offensive message because the gospel looks at people like you and me and says you think you're alive and you think you're living life and you think you're fine and you think you're good and you think you're moral but when scripture looks at you that's how scripture sees you you're dead the bible has a phrase for that it says you're dead in sins you're dead in your sin now the gospel is very offensive because the gospel literally to to cure us it first insults us now that's not strange to us because sometimes you've gone to the doctor or the hospital and they wanted to do a procedure and the procedure is painful and they say but the pain is going to be worth it because through this procedure it's going to help your condition and so you put up with the pain to get the cure right well the gospel is the very same you've got to put up with the offense of the gospel to get to the miracle of the gospel you've got to put up with the offensive nature of the gospel message if you're ever going to benefit from the salvation that's in the gospel and the gospel insults us firstly by telling us that salvation is free and it's undeserved that you are such a spiritual failure you are such a disaster that the only way you can ever gain salvation is for god to give you a complete gift there's nothing in you you're dead you're lifeless there's nothing in you that god can get a hold of and pull you up and make you good there's nothing in you and so the gospel first offends you by saying you're such a spiritual disaster that god has to give you everything because you can't do anything to save yourself and that offends moral people oh my goodness that provokes religious people because they are good living people they think that their decency they do the comparison game they compare themselves to somebody else's and they think well i'm better than that person and i live more moral than that person and i keep the ten commandments and that person doesn't and so religious people moral people they're highly offended by the gospel but paul said i'm not ashamed of the gospel i'm not offended by the gospel because the gospel is the power of god under salvation and i need to be saved so i've got to go through the pain of being told i'm a sinner so i can be saved from my sin the gospel is also very insulting when it tells us that god came in flesh jesus died for us on the cross the gospel has the courage to tell you that you are so wicked see society tells you you're so good even while you're doing wicked things but the gospel has the courage the bible has the courage to look at you and say you are so wicked and you are so vile that only the death of the son of god could save you and that offends our modern intellectually informed belief that humanity is innately good that really there's goodness we say things that are so stupid he has a good heart the bible says the heart is deceitful it's desperate it's desperately wicked who can know it is deceitful above all things he has a good heart no he doesn't and you don't either and the gospel has the courage to tell you that you are so wicked and you are so vile that it took god coming in a body and dying on a cross and going through agony to save you and unless you grasp that and unless you're willing to put up with the offense of the gospel you can't be saved unless you're willing to let the gospel actually diagnose your true condition you're going to go keep on deluding yourself into being a religious person instead of a saved person the gospel is incredibly offensive because it also tells us that trying to be good and trying to be spiritual isn't enough there's no good person that will be saved you have to have salvation from jesus you can't merit it by yourself and furthermore apostolics i know you're all trying to disconnect because this is making you uncomfortable you can't sustain it by yourself you can't maintain it by yourself you can't live it by yourself because your good works kind of look like this hallelujah thank you jesus it's dead it's lifeless it's powerless all your good works look about like that to god all your good works cannot do anything to lift you up or help you conquer sin none of your good works can do that it's just putting on it's just a mirage it's just an image and the gospel tells us that nobody that's just trying to do good by themselves will ever be saved and that offends us in our culture because we literally say things that are so stupid all roads lead to god no they don't you serve god in your way and i'll serve god in my way that's not what the bible says you say i'm offended by that of course you are the gospel is meant to be offensive the gospel is supposed to be confrontational the gospel is supposed to get under your skin and make you hate it and hate the person that's telling you that that's what happened to paul and it didn't slow him down not for one second he said i'm ready to go to rome and preach the gospel and he died in rome the gospel is offensive because it tells us that our salvation was accomplished entirely by jesus by his suffering and by his serving and the gospel tells us that if we follow him we may suffer as well if we follow him we have to serve with him and that offends people because they want salvation to be kind of like you know subscribing to a club and when you subscribe you pay your dues and like leave me alone i don't want your junk mail and i don't want to have to go if i don't want to go and whatever it's kind of like a club and the gospel is offensive because the gospel has the courage to look at you and say sitting in church you're dead you're dead um nothing's different about you essentially in your life than anybody else out there you just go to church you're a religious dead person and they're a sinful dead person or you're an undercover sinful person and they're uh out with a sinful person but you're still dead that's the offense of the gospel are we uncomfortable enough yet but paul said in spite of all of that and in spite of the fact that the gospel is not even a smidgen politically correct i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ for it is the power of god unto salvation yes it went to the jew first but now it's also to the greek it's to everyone that believes and i thank god this morning for the gospel because woodward the pastor wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the gospel woodward wouldn't have a hope if it wasn't for the gospel but the gospel changes things and the difference between being dead and being alive is not a bunch of rules the difference between being dead and alive is not going to a religious institution the difference between being dead and alive is not doing a bunch of good works and being a better neighbor than all the other people on your street that's just human pride the only thing that can turn you from dead into alive is the gospel of jesus christ and that's why paul said the just they live by faith we walk by faith we go through trials by faith we go to work and we live in this world and we pay our bills but behind it all we live by faith we actually dare to believe in somebody that we haven't even seen yet but having not seen we love and we believe on him and we have joy unspeakable and full of glory and we know that we know that we know that this same jesus who went away is coming back someday soon and we're going to go to heaven to be with him and it will not be because we flexed our muscles and we got religious that's not going to help that's just more deadness it's just religious deadness instead of sinful deadness the reason we're alive today is because we've got the gospel that came into our life and we obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine that was delivered to us that's what paul said paul's not ashamed of the gospel because he said the gospel doesn't just talk about power the gospel doesn't just bring power the gospel doesn't just have some power the gospel is power but it only works for the people that believe it only works as he said in verse 5 for the people who have obedience to the faith so don't try to figure the gospel out just try it out don't try to figure it out just try it out it'll work the gospel gives us something we can never obtain on our own because no matter how hard i try i still look like this in the sight of god i'm dead in my sin i'm dead in my trespasses i'm dead in iniquity i'm dead in addiction and bondage no matter how hard i try i can't put spiritual life in me so i look like that no matter what i do until i obey the gospel and the gospel brings me something in in in verse 17 it says it brings me the righteousness of god now the righteousness of god is a positional word it means that i have a right standing before god no amazing because i i can't merit a right standing before god but righteousness means i'm now in the right position before god i have no liabilities on my account i have no debts to god anymore i am acceptable to the other party because my record no longer has anything on it that jeopardizes our relationship and here's the good news if that righteousness had to come from me it would be like this guy trying to take up the offering today it would be a disaster there'd be money all over the floor because he's dead he's not bad he's just dead he's not you know somebody that's not a good neighbor or not a good friend or he actually is a great listener yes i've talked to him a lot shooting that crazy little video commercial we did he's a good listener and he's very attentive sometime we'd be driving along in the car and we'd hit a bump and his head would just turn immediately toward me he's he's awesome and if you wrap his hand just right you can get it right around a cup of tim horton's coffee there's no there's nothing wrong with him except he's dead and there's nothing wrong with nice people in the world that are your neighbors and friends and whatever except they're spiritually dead and there's nothing wrong with many church people that you know they come to church they're nice people they sit in the same seats that you do and they sing the same songs that you do and there's nothing wrong with them they're not evil evil evil because they're sinister they're they're just dead spiritually it's important to realize how much jesus actually did for you at calvary sometimes we think that calvary is just about forgiveness that calvary is just about having our slate wipe clean please hear me this morning that's only half of the gospel message because in the gospel because it comes from jesus and because all the power comes from him and because all the enabling comes from him the giver gets the glory if i flex my muscles and i do it myself come on there fred if i flex my muscles then then what happens is i can claim the credit but if i can't do anything and jesus has to come in and give me everything then the one who did it gets the glory and the giver of salvation gets the glory and the giver of salvation is not me it's jesus now now watch what happened at calvary because salvation isn't like uh getting a pardon and being set free from death row in prison and and and then you're on your own that's only half of the gospel message the rest of the gospel message is this you're not just free after god cleans your slate and puts you out of prison he's actually put you out of prison and given you a medal of honor and said now you're declared righteous now you have my righteousness now you have the gospel in you the gospel always causes offense to people because it tells us that you've got a need you can't meet and we don't like that the gospel offends people because it tells them you can never measure up to god's standards and it offends people who think they've already measured up to god's standards thank you very much and the gospel says no you haven't nobody can save themselves everybody's dead that's why the just shall live by faith why does god do it because the giver gets the glory that's why he does it that way now uh let's sum up chapter one here if you would uh chapter one tells us that we are dead uh everybody say we're dead fred's dead and and this is what the bible means by a stiff neck and whatever anyway all right so you're dead everybody say we're dead how are we dead in chapter one the bible tells us we are dead in carnality look at this the bible says for the wrath of god somebody say wrath the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness now the bible doesn't say that someday god's going to come back in a blaze of thunder and he's going to be angry and he's going to reveal his wrath way off then in the future the bible actually says that god is revealing his wrath right now against ungodliness and against unrighteousness now ungodliness that's referring to our vertical relationship with god and unrighteousness is referring to our horizontal relationship with other people so we have two problems we've got a problem with this relationship with god and because there's no relationship with god because we're dead then everything we do to interact with other people is tainted by sin and humanity constantly breaks the two biggest commandments love the lord your god with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself and we we're a disaster on both of those but the bible tells us that that that god he's revealing his wrath and then it goes on to say if you read the next few verses that god actually holds us accountable for obeying his commandments even if we say well i've never heard of god even if we say i don't know the bible even if we say i didn't know about the gospel god still holds us accountable and and people say well that's not fair but but god believes it's fair because he actually says in verse 20 that we are without excuse he's made creation so magnificent that if you're honest-hearted you have to know there's something bigger than you you have to know there's something greater than humanity you have to know that there's a power at work that's way different than what mankind can come up with if you're honest you know somebody i was reading this week somebody talked about uh atheism and atheism has kind of made a little bit of a resurgence it's still like .00 something of a percent of the population but but it's made this little resurgence lately and they call it the new atheism and they're writing all their books and of course colleges and and universities they're rampant for that kind of stuff and and somebody made this comparison they said uh it's kind of like somebody that comes in here and and they they lecture us this morning about air does not exist and all that while they're talking to you about air does not exist they're breathing air that's atheism god does not exist and all the time they're talking about god does not exist they only exist because god exists they only exist because god's universe exists they only exist because god's sunlight and air and water exist and so they can knock themselves out talking about god doesn't exist but they only exist because god exists now now god says that he's going to hold us responsible you can see right there they are without excuse because we should understand that from the creation of the world things are clearly seen we should understand that that god is holding us accountable we are without excuse we're without excuse now here's the problem god uh he has he has an issue here and and paul dives in where angels fear to tread in this next little bit of romans and some of you if you're a bible reader and you know what's in this chapter you've been holding your breath because this gets a little um a little uncomfortable paul says when they knew god they glorified him not as god and they weren't thankful and they became vain in their imagination and their foolish heart was darkened and they professed themselves to be wise but actually they became fools and they changed the glory of the incorruptible god into an image now he's referring to idolatry but but he's not talking about like making a little statue and bowing down he's talking about anything that you do that puts something else in the place of god that's idolatry and and it's it's really quite a comparison here see see here's what happens to you we don't stop worshiping when we don't serve god we just worship something else humanity we the psychologists have a word for but but we are made to worship something we're made to to give our life to a cause uh something that's bigger than we are and greater than we are we're just formed that way we're made that way and so uh when we don't worship god we start worshiping something else we were created by a creator to serve a creator and so if we reject him you will serve something else and you will worship something else and here's how you know if you worship something else other than god it becomes your bottom line it's what you give most of your time to it's what you give most of your focus and energy to it's what makes you get up in the morning it's it's what just energizes everything in your life that's how you know that you've exchanged god for something else that's how you know that something else has moved to the top of your priority list and and and god he might be number two or number five or number 22 but he's not number one and that's wrong and that keeps you out of christianity real christianity now the bible does tell us that the world around us is very good genesis 1 31 says that god created everything he looked at it he said it's very good so everything that's created has good in it and so you're right to find good in things you're you're right to give yourself to your job and do a good job you're right to have a nice home your right to have possessions that's all good there's good in creation and you're right to enjoy those things the problem comes when you give to any created thing or any creative person the worship and the loyalty and the affection that only belongs to god so let me give it to you in a nutshell the human heart loves to make a good thing into a god thing we love to give ourselves our time our energy our focus to other things but from god's perspective in verse 22 he said that is the perspective of a fool because they're giving their whole life to something that's temporary that won't even outlast their funeral and then paul jumps in and he says here's how we know god's wrath is being reserved god gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own heart here's how you know god's wrath isn't going to just be poured out someday off in the future god's wrath is being poured out right now and here's how god pours out his wrath today when god wants to judge someone today he gives them what they want more than him that's how he judges them he gives them what they're really wanting in their secret heart of hearts and he lets them have it and and they think it's success they think it's blessing pastor jack talked to a backslider this week that got a big financial windfall and thought it was the blessing of god they think it's blessing it's judgment it's god allowing them to say you know what if you want that more than me knock yourself out if you want that more than me you can have it and it will just cycle through your life and it's my judgment on you i'm just going to let you have what you want more than me and so we have to be very very careful here god's judgment is to give us what we want more than him fred you're livelier than a lot of them in here this morning more responsive too now paul says watch this this is going to get uh really uncomfortable because it's not enough already god gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts now the word lust there it's a word that means over desires lust means something that you desire too much it's an over desire it's a longing for something that ends up controlling you see the main problem of the human heart isn't that we desire bad things it's that we over desire good things think about your life you over desire a career and it possesses you and god becomes second you over desire a mate someone to fall in love with and you put them ahead of god and it ends up messing that whole relationship up you over desire pleasure or you over desire money or you over desire something and it's not that you desire something bad it's that you over desired something good that's what lust means in the scripture and we turn good things into god things and we make them the object of our worship and the worst thing that can happen to a human being is that they're given what their heart over desires that's not the blessing of god that's the wrath of god that's not the blessing of god that's the judgment of god he's just letting you run the full course of that rebellion he lets you walk through the door that you have chosen instead of putting him first and the problem with humanity ladies and gentlemen is when an idol takes precedence in our life we will do anything no matter how destructive it is to us no matter how destructive it is to somebody else will do anything just to have it now these next two verses have become politically incorrect to even reference some people would like us to discard them from the bible or at least destroy any kind of of impact of these verses but these verses are still in the bible it's one of the more controversial passages today in the bible it says for this cause god gave them up to vile affections and vile affections is paraphusein in the greek language it literally means god gave them up to things that were against nature against even human nature and and paul goes on and and and i'm sorry uh to read this i know this isn't politically correct but it is in the scripture he says the women did change the natural use into that which is against nature and the men did as well and they left the natural use of the woman and they burned in their lust one toward another men with men and and and they received in themselves that recompense of their error which was meat and they didn't like to retain god in their knowledge and so he gave them over to a reprobate mind that's a scary term in scripture because a reprobate line means that a mind that's so possessed with sin and so rebellious against god that god has to reject it that's a reprobate mind now i want this church that loves everybody and welcomes everybody i want to say something very very strongly here god didn't pick out homosexuality here because it's a worse sin than any other sin i'm gonna say that again he did not pick out homosexuality here paul didn't use homosexuality as an example because it's worse than any other sin he just used it because it's a perfect example of somebody that desires something so very much that they'll go against the nature that god put in them to get that pleasure but verse 24 tells us all sexual immorality is sinful and paul's about ready to give us a list that's a whole lot of other sins and this isn't worse than all of those so so we've got two extremes in christianity today one is all these church people that are trying to pretend and it's especially happening among some of my friends in our great neighbor to the south they're trying to pretend that this is like the worst sin and they permit all kinds of other sins in their churches and in their lives but this sin they'll come out in force to attack people over this sin that's wrong but the other extreme is this that that doesn't really mean what it says and god really he doesn't care and and really paul didn't mean that and so really no sin matters including this sin they're both wrong we have to come to grips of the fact that the gospel is an offensive message the gospel literally dares to stand in your space and in your face and tell you that if you do these things you can't go to god's heaven the longest part of your life will be messed up right now is just a rehearsal for that long part of your life and so chapter one it just pushes over and over and over again we're dead in carnality we're dead in sensuality we're dead in sin we're dead in lust we're dead we're dead we're dead we're dead we're dead there's no more life in us spiritually than this there's no more life spiritually in us than anything we're dead we're dead we're dead paul doesn't mind making us uncomfortable this is what theologians call the doctrine of total depravity everything we do isn't always sinful but everything we do is touched in some way by sin so paul sums it up and he says actually they're like haters of god they're haters of god now he gives us a list and and this list is long and this list includes all kinds of things this list sums it up and says you know really we're all haters of god but some of us are proud some of us are backbiters some of us are covetous we we desire things some of us we're in fornication that sexual sin some of us are disobedient to parents some of us are covenant breakers some of us are unmerciful it's all on the same list ladies and gentlemen it is wrong to pick out one sin that you don't commit and say that's the worst sin it's equally wrong to say no sin matters today god's just kind of gone on vacation and we're modern and god's modified his views like we've modified our views that's wrong too and verse 32 ends with a commentary on our society and we'll ask the music to come back people not only do these things but look at this they have pleasure in them that do them some people it's not that they're doing these sins but they watch these sins on the media they're not doing these things but they take pleasure in them they get a vicarious thrill from following the immoral lives of different people in our society and so although they're not technically doing these sins the bible puts them in the same list because they have pleasure in those that do them it's just a movie it's just a story it's just fiction but they have pleasure in those that do that and just in case we're not totally offended by the power of the gospel just in case we're not totally messed up by what paul said so far just in case we haven't run away by now paul has one last thing to say you see paul's aiming for us not just the world um because he knows what you're like and he knows what i'm like here's what paul's anticipating at the end of chapter one after we've read this long laundry list of sins and we've delved into the dregs of humanity and there's all these people and all this wickedness and all this sin and all this immorality and and you almost feel dirty just by reading the list and you think humanity's dead humanity can't help themselves humanity there's nothing we can do we're hopeless and that's exactly what the gospel was designed to make you feel like but there's one last thing that paul does here one last thing that he does because he knows that somebody is going to be sitting saying that's right paul get him paul sick them paul preach to him paul they're so wicked they're so evil society's in a mess so many people are so sinful and it's disgusting what people do he knows that you would be thinking that and so chapter 2 verse 1 is like a bucket of cold water in your face chapter 2 verse 1 says therefore thou art inexcusable o man whosoever thou art that judges for wherein thou judgest another you're actually condemning yourself for you that judge you're doing the same things let me do what paul did and talk to the church people for a minute this morning let me do what paul did and talk to people that this might not be your home church but you're a church person paul said you're inexcusable if you look at the world and you're all disgusted and on your high horse about how wicked and how evil everybody is but you delight in some of the things that they do you watch some of the things that they do on your computer you're inexcusable it's a brilliant turnaround what paul's saying is that nobody somebody say nobody nobody really lives up to their own standards no matter who you are and certainly nobody could live up to god's standards now to judge in that verse doesn't mean you shouldn't judge sin because we're told we should judge sin the bible tells us to judge all things but what it means is don't judge somebody else and think that they're so worse off than you are every church in this nation every church in north america every church in the world needs a dose of their but for the grace of god go i this church needs a dose of that there but for the grace of god go i i could be the one that was a drug addict i could be the one that was an alcoholic i could be the one that was perverted i could be the one that was all ensnared in sexual sin and wrecked my life i could be that one and i know and paul knew he said i know who i'm addressing i'm addressing the nice dressed up church people they got their sunday finest on but they're dead because there's no compassion in them there's no mercy in them there's no appreciation for the gospel in him such were some of you he writes in another place but you're washed and you didn't do the washing the gospel did the washing so before we all get high and mighty and go home feeling smug because we're pentecostal before we get all righteously indignant against all the sin and all the perversion that seems like it's let loose in our world and there's this flood of filth that's just coursing back and forth across north america through the media before we get all up on our high horse and judge everybody you're inexcusable o man whoever you are that judges somebody else while you're judging them you're condemning yourself you think you're so far above them but god's view from heaven his righteousness is way up there and if you're here and they're here god can't even see that difference you still need infinite salvation to cure your infinite problem would you lift up your hands i'm almost finished thank you for your kind attention church i really do need you to pray i know the conviction of the lord is here i understand that but i just need you to pray for a minute i love you jesus i love you jesus so we're here this morning on a sunday morning first part of a series and we'll we'll have some fun during this series we really will there's some exciting things in romans but until you feel the wrath of god against your sin the gospel won't help you until you stop doing the sunday shuffle and you start putting yourself in a different category because you did something good and you came to church today until you stop doing that you can't experience the power of the gospel you can know about the theology of the gospel you can know that the preacher is talking about the gospel you can know a few pet scriptures about the gospel but you can't experience the power of the gospel until you come to grips with the fact that your life yes you you are under the wrath of god you think i'm not under the wrath of god life's good everything's going fine that's the wrath of god he's letting you walk away from him because you love something else more than him and right now his wrath is being evidenced and displayed in your life because he's actually letting your idol possess you paul says in chapter one we've got those that are dead in carnality but if you flip the page to chapter two we've got those that are equally dead in hypocrisy romans chapter one is a young man that you know as the prodigal son he walks away from his father's house he involves himself in all kinds of sin his life is possessed by all kinds of evil things but there's another boy in that house and he's romans chapter two he's standing back smugly and judging that prodigal and when the prodigal finally crawls out of the pig pen and comes home he's standing there to make sure that he feels all the smugness and the snideness and all the righteous indignation of the guy that never left home but the point of the matter is that the guy that never left home and he kept all the commandments on the surface he was also estranged from his father so there's really two prodigals in jesus story and there's really two people under the wrath of god in romans 1 and romans 2. and so pastors here for our great church and for our visitors today i'm here to just tell you that the only way to get out of trouble with god is to let the gospel actually in your life and you can't do it part-time you can't do it half-time you can't do it a little bit you've got to let the gospel become the reason that you live you've got to let the gospel become the reason you get up in the morning yeah you'll still go to work but you go to work with the gospel yes you'll still have friends and relationships and activities and social times but the gospel will touch every single one of them the gospel refuses to be second place or fourth place or tenth place the gospel has to be first place would you stand with me right now time's up on the clock but time's not up with god god's willing to actually touch and minister and change somebody's life here because the gospel is the power of god unto salvation we're gonna come to the front in a minute let me tell you about that we do that very often and here's why we do it it makes it comfortable for everybody to respond to god so it's not the preacher in a tug of war with you and you know you should be here and and everybody's looking so we're just all going to come and everybody's welcome you don't have to belong to our church to come to the altar this is your first time in this building you're welcome to come with us and pray we're just going to pray for a few minutes as the family of god and god's going to touch but there's there's a two-pronged altar call this morning ladies and gentlemen one is for people that need the gospel for the first time in their life because they're living in romans chapter one and some of those sins that we read this morning they're in those right now some of those sins that we read this morning they're ensnared by those right now and they need the gospel because they're living in romans chapter one but there's a second altar call here for the precious people of god because we live in a wicked world and we serve god in the face of a treacherous enemy named the devil who's always trying to ensnare young people and married people single people elders children in sin because if he can get you doing god on the outside and sin on the inside this is how you are you're just an image you're just a prop you're just a facade and the holy ghost is here this morning and i knew he would be and really i've dreaded this particular message in this series it would be better if the heavy hitter message was like part five but i knew it was gonna be at the first because here's what paul knew and here's what he preached that until you understand that church person or non-church person religious person or irreligious person a holy person or sensual person it doesn't matter we all are under the wrath of god until we say i can't do it on my own i'm just dead there's no life here i'm going to church i've been coming for a while i used to feel the touch of god but today i'm hard and cold and dead and lifeless but i believe if i can just get back to the gospel i believe that the same jesus that lifted me out of that mess once he can lift me out of that mess that i'm allowed to creep back in my heart so yeah i'm talking to christians that are doing horribly sinful things in the privacy of your own life i'm talking to christians that it's been weeks since you really prayed it's been weeks since the word actually was in contact with you other than seeing it on the screen it's been weeks and you know what god loves you so much that even after you've been one of his kids and you walked away he still wants you back because the gospel i am not ashamed of the gospel i am not offended by the gospel if i've offended you i'm so sorry i really am but i cannot just sit back when i've got your gospel i'm a debtor to you i'm a debtor to every young person in this church that a sensual sex-crazed world has polluted your mind until you go home from church and you get on your computer and church is a distant memory i'm a debtor to every person that you're entertaining some kind of sin in your home in your life i'm a debtor to tell you that the gospel still works and the gospel still lifts and the gospel still delivers and the gospel still frees that's the gospel if you want god in your life if you want god to touch your soul more than you want lunch that's who the altar's open for if you want a touch of god more than you want somebody to wonder you'll i wonder what's wrong with them and you could care less you just want a touch of god if you want to touch your god more than you're afraid of the judgmental look of somebody else then that's who the altar is open for today oh jesus i thank you god i thank you god guys let's get rid of this yes jesus oh yes oh yes oh yes please don't be so ashamed of the gospel that you won't let a tear course down your cheek please don't be so ashamed of the gospel that you won't lift your hands and talk to god i am not ashamed of the gospel i need the gospel i'm not embarrassed by the gospel the gospel's the only hope that i've got come on men there's a world out there that's quite content to let you go to church as long as the devils got your mind possessed by a bunch of sin i refuse to live like that i don't want to be dead i want to be alive come on ladies come on ladies oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yeah oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes oh yes we're good with the music for now i want everybody in the building praying everybody that will i want you to pray i want you to lift up your voice we don't have a hope except for the gospel church member you don't have a hope except for the gospel you are not sustaining yourself you are not maintaining your relationship with god on your own strength in fact for some of you that's why you fell flat on your face you need the gospel you need the power of jesus in your life come on church lift up your voice and pray lift up your voice and pray come on man come on come on precious sweet ladies pray hey

Channel: Capital Community Church

Views: 7,650

Rating: 4.8214288 out of 5

Keywords: part, one, dead, and, alive, pastor, raymond, woodward, ccc, capital, community, church, fredericton, nb, new, brunswick, apostolic, pentecostal, fred, is, skeleton, sermon, series, preach, preaching

Id: dXkZGszgeAg

Length: 73min 24sec (4404 seconds)

Published: Sun May 04 2014