Romans 1:1 "Getting the Gospel Right, Part 1" The Men's Bible Study with Steven J. Lawson

[Music] to you and we're ready to kick off a new year the men's Bible study will be here next week a week from today okay for word up here now so so it's good to see I'm so excited to step back into this and when this is over I'm just gonna have to immediately leave and head to the airport so I wish I could just check in with everyone ahead men able to say hello to but we'll be here next week and I won't have to go anywhere then so thank you for coming let me just tell you what we're gonna do we started live-streaming these and taping these at verse 8 of chapter one and so as I as I traveled people are wanting to know when are you ever gonna go back and do the first seven verses of the book so we're going to go back and do the salad we've been in the steak and potatoes we're gonna have to go back to the original entree but what I'd like to do today and next week is just to cover this for completeness but I think it will have great spiritual value for you so we were at this point I guess two years ago or maybe a little bit before then so this is what we're going to do but these are phenomenal verses and these are actually are some of my very favorite verses in the entire Bible so let me also greet those who are watching us livestream thank you for joining us and you're a vital part of what's what is taking place thank you for your prayers and your encouragement and for the way you come up and encouraged me as I travel around wish you were right here in the room with us so let me begin in a word of Prayer father in heaven I pray that you will bless this study we know your word is inspired and errant and fallible authoritative all sufficient and we desire now to camp in your word and to live your word and I pray that your word would now live in us this day give us insight and understanding I pray that you would encourage and equip these men who have gathered here today I thank you for their strong hearts for you their kindred spirit and the things of your kingdom so at we asked now if you'd bless this study in Jesus name Amen well if you would take your Bible and turn back with me to the beginning of Romans to Romans chapter 1 and the value of these verses is that this prologue the first seven verses and in since it really extends to verse 17 really is the seedbed out of which the entire book of Romans grows so Paul really in miniature has given us what a preview of what is to come in the book of Romans so this opening prologue is actually very important because it really defines where the book is headed the title of this study is getting the gospel right and this I'm sure will be part one getting the gospel right I want to begin by reading the verses starting in verse 1 Paul a bondservant of Christ Jesus called as an apostle set apart for the gospel of God that's what this whole book is about it's about the gospel of God and the very first verse Paul throws his cards down on the table and turns them over and lets us see where we're headed so the book of Romans is all about getting the gospel right he continues in verse 2 which referring to the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh I'm going to keep reading here who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness Jesus Christ our Lord through whom we have received Grace and Apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for his name's sake among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ verse 7 to all who are beloved of God in Rome called as Saints grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ as we look at these verses it is true to say that the greatest need there is in the world today is for the gospel to do its work our greatest need is not political it's not sociological it's not financial it's not racial it's not cultural it's not creating new jobs it's not feeding the poor these are all needs but they're all secondary needs the one single primary need in the world today is for the gospel of Jesus Christ to do its work and when it does its work it it puts everything else into right order and so the number one threat the number one problem that any person faces in the world is the problem of sin it is sin that separates us from God it is sin that puts us under the wrath of God it is sin that will condemn us to eternal punishment and so the greatest need that you and I have the greatest need of anyone in the world is addressing their sin problem and there's no better place to get the gospel right to address God's solution to our sin problem than the book of Romans the book of Romans is Paul's magnum opus it is his major writing and in our Bibles there are 21 epistles romans is number one in your Bible it's number one in my Bible because it is the most important epistle in the New Testament the other 20 epistles really surround the book of Romans Romans is the Mount Everest that rises above the theological landscape of the New Testament now you may find it interesting that Romans was not written first by Paul Romans was the sixth epistle to be written by Paul and just to put this out the first epistle that he wrote was Galatians that was at the end of his first missionary journey the next two were 1st and 2nd Thessalonians which he wrote on his second missionary journey Paul then went on a third missionary journey and on that third missionary journey he first wrote first Corinthians and second Corinthians it was while he was in Corinth at the end of his third missionary journey that he wrote his sixth epistle which was the which was the book of Romans prior to Paul writing his six those first six epistles the book of James had already been written so the book of Romans is chronologically the seventh epistle to be written yet when we open our Bible it's always behind the steering wheel it's always in the driver's seat it's always number one and when the compilers of the New Testament pulled together what we call the Canon of Scripture in every Bible around the world the book of Romans is number one among the epistles because the book of Romans is Paul's major theological presentation on what is the gospel the other epistles in one way or another basically address a problem that a church or an individual is having with the gospel and Paul or in the other epistles that we call the general epistles will take care of those matters but Romans is the dominant epistle in the New Testament Martin Luther called Romans the gateway to heaven he called it an open door into paradise he called it the chief part of the New Testament and personally I go back and forth between the Gospel of John and the book of Romans as to which is the most important book in the New Testament but because we're in Romans I'm going to tell you it's Romans okay Martin Martin lloyd-jones used to say at the beginning about half of his sermons this is the most important verse in the entire Bible well you just can't say that every sermon but there's a sense in which she do feel like whatever you're studying is the most important verse but the book of Romans in reality gives us the framework for the gospel a Luther said this every Christian should know Romans word for word he should know it by heart and should occupy himself with it every day as the daily bread of his soul Romans he said can never be read or pondered too much the more it is dealt with the more precious it becomes and the better it tastes close quote well we have certainly found that to be true in this study and Luther went on to say Romans is the purest gospel so this is what Paul is addressing in this book and in this opening section he mentions the gospel four times at the end of verse one he says the gospel of God and verse nine he talks about the gospel of his son in verse 15 he says I'm eager to preach the gospel in verse 16 he says I'm not ashamed of the gospel and really in verse 17 when he says it for in it the righteousness righteousness of God has revealed that it refers to the gospel and in verse 2 when he says which begins with the word which that refers to the gospel so the the steel girder that runs through this opening prologue of the first 17 verses is all about the gospel and the rest of the Epistle the entire rest of the Epistle is really just a development of the different aspects of the gospel the gospel is God's solution to man's greatest need which is to address his sin problem this is addressing the greatest problem that you have in your life which is your sin problem now Paul has has longed to go to Rome and he wants to go to Rome to preach the gospel he says in verse 15 which is at the end of this prologue I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome the reason he wanted to go to Rome was to reach Rome was to reach the entire Roman Empire it would be to send a ripple effect throughout the entire empire now Rome was not the buckle of the Bible Belt Rome was not an easy City to reach with the gospel in Paul's day Rome was a city with a population of over 1 million people and it was virtually a cesspool of iniquity and every foul sin and every aspect of paganism and hedonism it was just all compressed in to Rome Rome boasted magnificent buildings it had Emperor at the Emperor's Palace it had the Roman Colosseum it had the Circus Maximus it had the forum it was a city of of immense power it was the seat of power for the entire Roman Empire it was like a Washington DC New York City Los Angeles just all merged together into one city it was the base for the military power of Rome were the marching armies of Rome the most powerful armies in the world marched in and out of it was the political base the military base the financial base Paul once wants to go to Rome and to put the gospel up in the marketplace of ideas because he knows that the gospel will blow out of the water any other religion and any other ideology and any other philosophy he knows what verse 16 says it is the power of God unto salvation so Paul's strategy to go to Rome to reach the Roman Empire was not to petition Caesar and it was not to boycott the palace and it was not to lobby the Senate Paul's strategy was to put the gospel out there and let the gospel do its work because Paul knew God put the power in the gospel he didn't put the power in any other human strategies he put the power in the gospel so Paul wants to let the lion out of the cage he wants to let the lion loose and as Paul will expound the gospel in greater detail and precision that anywhere it is found in the entire Bible he understands that we have to be right about the gospel we cannot be wrong about the gospel and be right with God we have to be right about the gospel in order to be right with God so getting the gospel right is that important so I want to begin here in in verse 1 and I'm not certain how many verses we will walk through here because this is very concentrated and that is a characteristic of an epistle an epistle as a letter the book of Romans is a letter and characteristic of Paul's epistles is he can pack more into a sentence then other people could pack into an entire letter I mean Paul is the king of prepositional phrases and there's like a whole library of truth contained in just one little prepositional phrase so sometimes you may wonder can't we just speed through this a little quicker the answer is yes we could but we would just be hydroplaning over the surface the pearls are not floating on the surface the pearls are down on the floor down at the bottom we've got to dive down to get the pearls okay so let's begin this this opening prologue specifically these first seven verses and we really probably will just cover the first couple of verses but to understand this is to be set up to understand the entire rest of the book of Romans all right it's like this is almost like the rudder of the ship that that that's steering the entire ship in the direction we'll be headed so having said that let's dive into this and the first heading I want to set before you is the messenger of the gospel the messenger of the gospel Paul begins by identifying himself as the messenger of the gospel he says in verse 1 Paul a bondservant of Christ Jesus called as an apostle set apart for the gospel of God in epistles in the first century there they were a lot smarter than we are we put our name at the end of a letter they were smart enough to put their name at the beginning of a letter it's like when someone calls me on the phone i I'm not really excited to talk to all I know that I'm talking to I mean you need to identify yourself who are you so I can engage in this conversation and it's the same in writing and reading a letter you don't want to read the letter till you know who's writing the letter really matters so I mean is this Caesar writing this letter is this paul i mean who is writing this letter so Paul begins by identifying himself as the author of this letter Paul now what should strike us is Paul is the most unlikely person in the entire Roman Empire to write this letter I mean Paul will identify himself to us later in his epistles as a blasphemer a formerly a blasphemer formerly a persecutor of the church he identifies himself as a violent aggressor and the chief of sinners and that's no hyperbole that was not an exaggerated statement Paul was adamant in his opposition against the gospel he was Saul of Tarsus and he was Hades bent to destroy the gospel of Jesus Christ and you recall how he was on the Damascus with letters in hand having just witnessed Stephen being stoned to death in acts 7 for his preaching the gospel to the Sanhedrin and saul of tarsus was standing there watching and observing this martyrdom and he secures then letters official letters that he can go to damascus and apprehend and arrest the christians and drag them back to jerusalem no doubt to be stoned to death there so he was a a one-man swat team against the gospel and against the believers and he is on that damascus road and you recall he's riding on a horse and the Lord Jesus just suddenly appears to him in Acts chapter 9 in fact let me just turn to it real quick in Acts chapter 9 suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him verse 4 and he fell to the ground he was just knocked off his high horse and heard a voice saying to him Saul Saul why are you persecuting me to persecute the church is to persecute the head of the church the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus gets in his face and kits in his grill and says why are you persecuting me to come against the church is to come against the Lord Jesus Christ himself who is one with the body of Christ the church and Saul said who are you lord question mark he answers his own question by the end of the sentence who are you lord this this is a divine intervention this is a sovereign regeneration this is Jesus intervening into the affairs of Saul of Tarsus and jesus answered after Saul said who are you Lord and he said I am Jesus whom you are persecuting get up and enter the city and it will be told to you what you must do this is lordship salvation on steroids and from the moment he was converted who are you Lord he is a man under Authority immediately as he has told get up and it will be told you what you're gonna do the rest of your life as the Lord after he hints him the Lord subpoenas him and draws him into his kingdom Salah Tarsus was not even looking for the Lord Jesus was the seeking Savior who came and found Saul of Tarsus and this really is a prototype for your conversion and for my conversion because Paul will go on to explain in chapter 3 we all like sheep have gone astray there's none who seeks after God no not one we were running away from the Lord and it was the Lord Jesus who came and found us even if it was in a Christian home or in a church nevertheless you were lost and it was Jesus who came and found you and dramatically intervened into the affairs of of your life and really just took over the control of your life and in that moment you became a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ he knows all things well he doesn't half save someone he doesn't halfway convert someone it is a dramatic makeover and takeover of a person's life when he saves them and if he hasn't taken over your life I can assure you you haven't been converted yet you cannot meet the risen Christ without your life being radically transformed he is that powerful in his grace is that transforming so this is who is the writer of this book and just to give make one point of application here it should encourage all of us here today in this study that God delights in taking the most leak list likely people to make him his messengers he delights to reach all the way to the bottom of the barrel and bypass those that the world would think oh he would be a great candidate to be the author of Romans or he would be a great person to lead this ministry or whatever no God does it this way because he gets all the glory it won't be because someone would say well he was the power broker in town to begin with or he had this or that going for him no the Lord delights and taking the chief of sinners and transforming him in to the greatest Christian who has ever lived so he tells us three things about him about himself in verse one that are are very important and he begins by referring to himself as a bondservant of Christ Jesus he does this even before he identifies himself as an apostle even this is a mark of humility on the part of the Apostle Paul he leads by identifying himself as a bondservant now this this is a Greek word Doulos which literally means slave and it's a poor translation in in our English versions and it was not translated slave because of all the social and racial stigma that is attached to slavery but the reality is this is the word for slave and there's a difference between being a servant and a slave a servant would be like a day laborer who would be hired at the beginning of the day and you would work you you you would like stand at a designated place and the man who owns it the field or the business would come by and say I'll hire you I'll hire you I'll take you today and you go with him you work for a day you get a fair day's pay for a fair day's work at the end of the day you go home you you have your own house you have your family you have your possessions if you want to work the next day you can come back the next day and be rehired that that's the way it works as a servant but you still have your own life to live you're still calling your own shots you're still running your own life you can show up if you want or not show up but a slave was something different a slave was virtually a piece of property that had been bought in a slave market had been purchased at a high price and a master would come to the slave auction and he would choose who he wants to buy and when he buys him he takes him out of the slave market but he's not free to just live however he wants to live and go over wherever he wants to go I now own you you belong to me I have bought you and you're gonna do my work and you're gonna work for me and so he would follow the master home and live in his home and he would be given work assignments and at the end of the day you don't go someplace else you stay here and you work for me and I'm in the master would entrust his possessions to his slave and the slave would become a steward of the Masters possessions but he wouldn't own anything whatever needs he had the master would provide for those needs and if he became lazy he would be chastened and he would be disciplined and if he did the the work appropriately then there might be a special reward Paul uses the word slave because that's he knew exactly who he was that he had been a slave of sin and he had been a slave a Satan held in the chains of his own sin sin was a cruel tyrant that was dominating his life and the Lord Jesus Christ unexpectedly intervened into his life and said you're mine and Jesus had bought him at the cross with the shedding of his blood he had purchased him and Paul will write to the Corinthians 1st Corinthians 6 what know you not that your body is the temple of the holy God you're not your own you've been bought with a price therefore glorify God with your body Paul understood this about his life that for the rest of his life he wasn't following his own agenda he wasn't calling his own shots he wasn't doing his own thing that he was a bondservant a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ and he was to do his master's work and he was to go wherever Christ would send him he was to speak only that which the Lord would teach him he was to fulfill his master's will for his life now let me just say that is true of your life as well it's true of my life if you are a believer in Jesus Christ if you've been born again then you are someone who has been bought at the cross at the price of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and he has set you free from your former life of being enslaved to your sin and enslave to this world system you now are a slave of Jesus Christ and your greatest joy and pleasure is to serve Him and let me just tell you this no slave ever had a more benevolent and loving master than what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ he will do you right he will take care of you he will send you and his will is good and acceptable and perfect Romans 12:2 and he will go before you he will open a door that no man can close he will protect you from behind and on the sides and he will walk with you and he will fellowship with you and he will give you life in life abundantly it is a privilege to be a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ so that's the first thing he identifies himself with a bondservant of of Christ Jesus then the second thing he says is called as an apostle to be an apostle was was huge the word apostle is used in two different ways in the New Testament and by the way the word apostle means ascent one one who is sent with a special commission to carry out a special task it was almost like being an ambassador that you would be dispatched by the head of a kingdom to go to another kingdom and to represent the head of your kingdom you are you are sent you are a sent one and the word is used in two different ways it's used in a general way in the New Testament of those who were helpers of the 13 apostles and there's a broad sense in which every Christian is a sent one to fulfill the Great Commission but here Paul is using it in a technical way there were the Twelve Apostles eleven that Jesus had trained during his three years of ministry and Matthias who was replaced in Acts chapter one and then Paul makes the 13th apostle and what was unique about an apostle is they number one received direct revelation in the first century from God and they became authors of New Testament scripture or became supporters of those who were writing New Testament scripture and as an apostle they had authority over the church they were really direct representatives of the head of the church the Lord Jesus Christ and Paul mentions that he's an apostle here not to draw attention to himself but so that the church in Rome when they received this letter will know what is in this letter has binding authority over their lives this isn't just someone standing up at a small group Bible study and saying I have something to say that may be insightful and helpful but it doesn't have authority over everyone else in the Bible study the Apostle mean being an apostle means I am speaking to you I'm the mouthpiece for Jesus Christ and what I teach is infallible truth and what I speak and what I write has authority over the church it is the highest authority in the church it is the highest arbitrator for every issue in the church so the pastor is under the authority of the Apostolic teaching the elders are under the teaching of apostolic Authority the congregation is under apostolic authority we talked about is this a congregation led church is this an elder led search is this a pastor led church the answer to all three of those is no this is an Apostolic Church in the sense we are under the authority of Scripture now scripture designates that there are to be elders and pastors and the congregation is to have some input but everything is to be under the the teaching of Scripture and specifically as it in the New Testament epistles as it comes from apostles now Paul also says called as an apostle he wants us to know this wasn't his idea to sign on for this he's not self promoting himself he was actually called by Jesus Christ himself to be an apostle he didn't volunteer for this there wasn't something posted a job description and if you'd like to be an apostle sign up here submit your resume we'll get back with you for an interview it doesn't work that way you had to be sovereignly chosen by God and called to be an apostle that's kind of what Jesus was saying in the Upper Room in John 15:16 when he's looking into the eyes of the eleven disciples who would become his apostles and he said you didn't choose me I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain so that extends to Paul himself and even the verses that I read on the Damascus Road and in Acts chapter 9 and in verse 15 I just need to read these two verses the Lord said to him he is a chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel and I will show him how much he must suffer for my namesake so he was chosen to take the gospel and to spread it and in Galatians chapter 1 he gives us another insight into this listen to Galatians 1 15 and 16 be very important to insert this here God set me apart from my mother's womb and called me through His grace he was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood so he was set apart from his mother's womb which in reality means from before the foundation of the world before time began long before the Damascus Road God had already marked out the path for his life and had predestined that Saul of Tarsus would become the Apostle Paul and would preach the gospel to to the Gentiles so that that was God's predetermined plan and just to make a point of application here God has marked out a path for you as well here's a fundamental principle of theology God is always previous God is always previous he's never playing catch-up he's always out ahead of the parade he's always leading the course of human history and he's always out ahead of your life he knows what he's going to be doing in your life five years from now ten years from now what's going on in your life today this very moment is to prepare you for tomorrow and for next week God has already marked out on the horizon your final destination and he has called you to serve Him he has called you not only to salvation but he has also called you to service everyone who is sovereignly chosen by God and called for salvation are also chosen and called for some specific task to serve him in his kingdom and there's great pleasure and joy in finding that niche where the Lord wants you to put your shoulder to his plow in his corner of the vineyard and to do his work the third thing that Paul says about himself so I guess we won't get to verse 7 in this in this study just a little comic relief there number one a bondservant number two an apostle called number three set apart for the gospel of God it to be set apart means exactly what that word indicates that he has been set apart from the common in the mundane he has been set apart from the temporal and that which is passing away he has been uniquely set apart to that which is eternal to that which is heavenly he has been set apart to the gospel of God that there is a narrow focus for his life and he must run this race and fulfill his purpose to spread the gospel as far and wide as possible again by way of application you have been set apart for the gospel you may work in real estate you may work as a lawyer you may work as a schoolteacher but in one way or another the tip of the spear for your life is to spread the gospel it is to help get the gospel out and it may be simply to serve in your church it may be to serve in a ministry it may be to support a ministry it may be to come alongside a preacher or a pastor and and just stand shoulder to shoulder with him and encourage him as he as he preaches the gospel but in one way or another every one of us are set apart for the gospel otherwise you'd already be in heaven otherwise God would have just taken you to heaven the moment you were saved and converted why did he why do we stay here the worship in Heaven's a whole lot better that the fellowship in heaven is a whole lot better there's no misunderstandings up there nobody gets their feelings hurt in heaven okay a there's no confession of sin going on up in heaven why are we still here and the reason you and I are still breathing on planet earth is we are set apart for the gospel and to find our place in this master strategy that Christ has for Planet Earth to get the Word of God out to get the gospel out as far and wide as possible do you know what the word broadcasting where it came from it was grabbing a handful of seed and casting it as broadly as you possibly could that's where the word broadcasting comes from and it originated with grabbing the seed of the word of God and broadcasting it as far and as wide as possible every one of us are in the business of broadcasting of getting the gospel of Jesus Christ out as far and wide as possible whatever that place is now I'm going to end at the end of verse one with the last four words the gospel of God and this now leads us to the meaning of the gospel we have looked at the messenger of the gospel I want you to see the meaning of the gospel we've been talking about the gospel a lot this morning I've been using the word what is the word gospel mean it's a compound word in the original language in the in the Greek and it very simply means good news the compound is the main root word I'm going to pronounce the Greek word only because you're going to hear an English word in it you on Gallion on Gallion on gail angel an angel is a messenger with a message on Gallion is the message there's a prefix put in front of on gelug on which is you you if you go to a funeral someone will give a eulogy that's a good word to say about someone you you means good log-off's means a word eulogy means a good word to be given at a funeral you on gely on when you bring those two together it means the good news and it's more than just good news it is the greatest news that anyone has ever heard or will ever hear you and I will never hear a greater message that will rise above this message of the gospel of Jesus Christ you will never say to someone else better news greater news than the gospel of Jesus Christ it is the good news of salvation that those who are perishing in their sins who are separated from God who are under the wrath of God who are on the broad road headed for destruction who have no ability to save themselves that God has the good news of salvation for them that he has sent his son into this world to live in our place to die in our place to rescue sinners from eternal destruction that this is the good news of salvation that this is the meaning of the gospel and it is it is a total complete salvation the word salvation means deliverance from destruction it means to be rescued from ruin the gospel is the good news of deliverance from the impending wrath of God to be unleashed eternally upon sinners because the wages of their sin is death it is the good news of cell of salvation notice the last two words of God the gospel of God that is that it what that means is the gospel comes from God this is God's solution to man's dilemma that God is the author of the gospel God is the architect of the gospel God is the source of the gospel the gospel has come down from the throne of God above the gospel does not originate in this world it has not been drafted by any church it has not been conceived by a denomination it does in that sense it does it has not come from nor does it belong to any preacher or any Christian author it has come down out of this it is an out-of-this-world message that has come from the infinite genius of God only God could have conceived the gospel it would have never dawned on any of us the plan of salvation it is so simple that a child can believe it but it is so profound that the greatest minds in the history of the world could have never designed the plan of salvation I I've said this T before but let me say it again if we were to divide up into little small groups just us here and we were to meet seven days a week for the next 10,000 years there's not a one of our group that would have come up with the plan of salvation we're not smart enough we're not wise enough who among us would have come up with the idea that God would Commission and send his own son into this world and be born of a virgin which one of our groups would have come up with the virgin birth seriously not one of us way that's beyond our pay grade okay that he would be born truly God and truly man that he would be fully God fully man he would be the god man which one of us would have ever come up with that idea I can assure let me answer that for you your group wouldn't have never come up with the hypostatic Union of the Lord Jesus Christ that he was God in human flesh that he would be born under the law the law of God that you and I have broken again and again and again and the wages of that law breaking is the curse of God which is wrath that Jesus was born under the law and he obeyed that law perfectly in our place and fulfilled all righteousness and secured the righteousness that is charged to our account in the act of justification there's not a one of us who would have come up with that idea and that he would go to a cross that was the electric chair of the first century that was the gas chamber of the first century that the son of God the Son of Man would go to the hellish horrific death of dying being crucified on a Roman cross just that in and of itself would have never dawned on any of us not even the brightest minds around these tables but more than that that all of the sin of all the people who would ever live and believe in Christ would be transferred to him and he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf would have never dawned in our thinking we would have never come up with the sin bearing substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross you know what every one of us would have come up with we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna make it the old-fashioned way we're gonna earn it we're gonna work our way to heaven we're gonna try to climb up that ladder to heaven we're gonna try to be good we're gonna try to to do all that we could possibly do that's what we would have come up with just like every other false religion in the world know the gospel of God has come down from the infinite genius of Almighty God and has been given to us and Paul will take the entire rest of the book of Romans and pull back the veil and show us the crown jewels of heaven he will show us the height and the depth and the breadth and the length of the gospel of Jesus Christ only God could have designed this and that he would be taking on the cross buried in a borrowed tomb and on the third day he would be raised from the dead and he would come walking out of that tomb with the keys of death in his hand he has conquered the grave he has conquered death ascended back to the right hand of God the Father and now whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved so you're telling me that my eternal destiny is dependent upon my relationship with a crucified dead Jew is that what you're saying that's exactly what we're saying because he was more than a carpenter he was the son of God the Son of man who secured salvation by his sinless life and his substitutionary death upon Calvary's cross this is the good news and it is offered as a free gift in my hands no price I bring simply to thy cross I cling now there's one last thing I've got to tell you it's the fourth to the last word the gospel of God it's not a gospel as if it's one of many Gospels this is the gospel this is the one and only gospel here is the exclusivity of salvation that is in Jesus Christ let me tell you no one else was born of a virgin no one else was truly God and truly man no one else perfectly has kept the law no one else has died upon the cross bearing my sins and taking them far away this is the one and only way of salvation jesus said I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the Father but through me and we're not just dogmatic about this we are bul dogmatic about this we are willing to go to the stake and to be burned as a martyr if we were called upon there is no equivocation in our confession that Jesus is the only way of salvation proverbs 14:12 says there's a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is the end of death Jesus spoke of the the broad road that is headed for destruction and many are those who find it and we must enter through the narrow gate that leads down the narrow path that leads to life and few are those who find it acts 4 verse 12 Peter before the Sanhedrin said there is salvation in no other name for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved in 1st Timothy 2 verse 5 there is one God and one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus who gave life a ransom for all the testimony born at the proper time I know I need to wrap this up and I know I need to end in a word of Prayer and I wish I could even answer the questions that have come in but contained in just verse one alone is a continent of truth that we need to hear and that that we need to know and the gospel is the only solution to your greatest problem your greatest problem is your sin problem and there is only one solution and it is founded in the gospel the only way that you can receive this solution the benefits of this gospel forgiveness of sin and the righteousness of God is to believe in God's Son the Lord Jesus Christ to repent of your sin to turn away from all self works and self-righteousness and to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and to put your faith and put your trust in Christ and in Christ alone to put both feet through the narrow gate and enter into the kingdom of heaven there alone will you find life there alone will you find the salvation that you so greatly need we will meet here next Thursday and we will pick it up in verse 2 alright we're gonna pick it up in verse 2 you're gonna have to give me this there was a lot in verse 1 okay there was a lot in verse 1 I want God's best for your life okay so I want I want you to have it all so and even at that it was an abbreviated treatment of verse 1 so let me just close in a word of Prayer and I'll look forward to seeing you next Thursday morning father thank you for the gospel you could have left us in our sins you could have left us without a savior and without deliverance from destruction yet you loved the world much you gave your only begotten Son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life thank you for intervening and in the midst of our hellbound race and turning us around and converting us we give all glory to you in Jesus name Amen amen everybody you got to be [Music]

Channel: OnePassionMinistries

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Rating: 4.9272728 out of 5

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Id: t6hCTGXs6A8

Length: 58min 43sec (3523 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 16 2020