back to index2015-08-23 The Power of the Gospel
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Why don't we turn our Bibles to Romans chapter 1, where our main focus today is going to 00:00:08.640 |
be on verse 16 and 17, but I want to read from verse 8 all the way down to verse 17. 00:00:15.240 |
So Romans chapter 1, verse 8 through 17. Reading out of the ESV. "First I thank my God through 00:00:23.480 |
Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For 00:00:27.520 |
God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing 00:00:31.920 |
I mention you, always in my prayers asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last 00:00:36.560 |
succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual 00:00:40.760 |
gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, 00:00:45.160 |
both yours and mine. I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, 00:00:50.640 |
but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as 00:00:55.120 |
well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to the Greeks and 00:00:59.320 |
to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel 00:01:03.680 |
to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is a power of 00:01:08.680 |
God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For 00:01:13.560 |
in it the righteousness of God is revealed for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous 00:01:18.240 |
shall live by faith.' Let's pray. You are a gracious and loving God, and we've come 00:01:26.880 |
this morning to worship you, to honor and glorify you. We desire, Lord God, to be faithful 00:01:34.300 |
to your word, not only in preaching, but to listen and to obey. We pray, Father God, that 00:01:40.880 |
the power of the cross would convict and strengthen us this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. 00:01:48.200 |
Alright so our main focus is going to be in verses 16 and 17 and really at the heart of 00:01:53.840 |
the book of Romans is verse 16 and 17. And I know that you guys, some of you guys have 00:01:57.880 |
memorized it. You've heard probably sermons on it, Bible studies. And it is really at 00:02:03.720 |
the core of what Paul is trying to say through this whole book. So his conclusion or his 00:02:09.920 |
thesis is summed up in these two verses. So we talked about how Paul is about to jump 00:02:15.360 |
in to the heart of the message of the gospel starting from verse 18. But before doing that 00:02:20.280 |
from verses 1 through 17, he's laying out his ministry. He introduces himself as a servant 00:02:27.800 |
who has been appointed as an apostle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then he talks 00:02:31.760 |
about this gospel of his son Jesus Christ that was proclaimed and given to the Jews 00:02:37.360 |
beginning in the Old Testament. And then we talked about his ministry, his attitude, and 00:02:41.400 |
how personal it was and how he was constantly in prayer wanting to strengthen the church. 00:02:46.760 |
And then we looked at it a couple weeks ago how Paul says he was obligated both to the 00:02:50.880 |
Greeks and to the barbarians. And then we talked about that how sometimes when we think 00:02:55.240 |
of obligation we think of burden, but instead Paul ends that section by saying, "I am eager." 00:03:01.840 |
Because of this obligation of the gospel, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also 00:03:05.820 |
who are in Rome. And he continues this thought of him being eager to preach the gospel in 00:03:11.680 |
verse 16 where he says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel." So in essence he's saying 00:03:16.320 |
the same thing. Whether you say it by saying, "I am bold. I am eager to preach." Or saying 00:03:20.800 |
that, "I am not ashamed to preach." In the end what he's saying is, "I am compelled to 00:03:25.040 |
do this. That this ministry that I am a part of to spread the gospel is something that 00:03:30.040 |
is compelling inside of me no matter what. And I am not ashamed." Paul says, "I am not 00:03:35.240 |
ashamed of the gospel," because that was not the norm. You know typically we think of the 00:03:41.240 |
early church and we think of thousands of Apostle Pauls running around planting churches 00:03:46.440 |
everywhere he goes. But the reason why he says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel," is 00:03:50.480 |
because there are many people who were ashamed. The typical thing that we see in the church, 00:03:57.320 |
we often times think that revival breaks out and all these people going out and bearing 00:04:01.800 |
a lot of fruit. But if you look at church history from the very beginning of the preaching 00:04:05.880 |
of the gospel with the Apostles it was typically a few men bearing a lot of fruit instead of 00:04:12.480 |
a lot of people bearing a few fruit. And so we see Paul encouraging the church to not 00:04:20.720 |
to be ashamed, to be bold in preaching the gospel because many of them were not. They 00:04:25.400 |
claimed the faith in Jesus Christ but they kept it to themselves. They kind of kept it 00:04:29.560 |
in their little things and they went to church but they weren't bearing fruit. They weren't 00:04:35.600 |
bold for Christ. In fact at the end of Paul's life, remember when we were studying through 00:04:39.800 |
2 Timothy, Paul's primary message to his protege that as he is departing is to plead with his 00:04:47.800 |
disciple that you would not turn from your faith like all these other men that have gone 00:04:53.200 |
before you. That all these people that have traveled with me and preached in the gospel 00:04:57.200 |
and now that I'm headed to prison and possibly be executed that some of them were ashamed 00:05:03.520 |
and some of them saw the consequences of what they were doing. They were beginning to fall 00:05:08.160 |
out. In our generation we have the same issue. You know exactly what percentage of people 00:05:18.120 |
who claim to be Christians are actively involved in sharing their faith. Now we can make the 00:05:23.920 |
mistake in thinking that if you're part of a church that does missions that somehow you 00:05:27.320 |
are doing missions. That if you're friends or if you're part of a group that we're part 00:05:31.280 |
of that. I don't want to get to the exact numbers but we know that it's very small. 00:05:36.960 |
That very few people even in our generation is actively involved in sharing this message. 00:05:43.640 |
So what Paul has to say to the Romans, what Paul had to say to the early church and to 00:05:47.440 |
Timothy is very relevant today. That we ought not to be ashamed of the gospel. We ought 00:05:53.840 |
to be eager to preach the gospel. Now why were they ashamed? What are some of the things 00:05:59.600 |
that caused them to be timid in sharing the gospel? Well let me say right off the bat. 00:06:04.920 |
They weren't persecuted because they were good people. Again we have a lot of stirring 00:06:10.960 |
up in our generation where it's almost a thing to do and thing to say. That social justice 00:06:18.560 |
is what we ought to be. And so there's been a lot of stirring up in the last 10 to 15 00:06:24.120 |
years. This conversation of wanting to help the poor and you know doing building bridges 00:06:30.360 |
or water pumps and all this stuff. And all of those things are fantastic. I think it's 00:06:35.880 |
absolutely necessary because that ought to be the character of a Christian. That we ought 00:06:40.320 |
to be concerned for people who are suffering. But that was not the reason why the early 00:06:45.440 |
church was persecuted. When was the last time somebody got persecuted for helping the poor? 00:06:51.320 |
You know you'll be commended. Christians and non-Christians alike. Not just in the United 00:06:55.920 |
States, all over the world. If you go there to give them physical help, you'll be praised. 00:07:02.720 |
In fact, even during the time of Jesus, they didn't hate Jesus because of his works. You 00:07:10.120 |
know, he fed the poor. He had people who were sick and he would raise them. I mean they 00:07:16.760 |
didn't hate Jesus for that. In John 10.33, the Jews talking to Jesus says, "It is not 00:07:23.680 |
for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy. Because you being 00:07:29.160 |
a man, make yourself God." He says, "It's not for anything that you've done. It's what 00:07:35.640 |
you're saying that's offending us. And it was so offensive to us that we're willing 00:07:39.920 |
to stone you and kill you." What is so offensive about what he said? What is so offensive of 00:07:46.920 |
the gospel that it's offensive? Not just today, it's always been offensive. Jesus didn't tell 00:07:54.720 |
his disciples that, you know, "I'm going to leave and they're going to thank you for bringing 00:07:59.120 |
the truth." He said, "No, they didn't know me, so they're not going to know you either. 00:08:03.160 |
So don't be surprised that as I send you out to preach the gospel, that they reject you. 00:08:08.120 |
They hate you. They persecute you. Drag you into prison because they did this to me and 00:08:12.520 |
they will do this to you." What is the offense of the gospel? That so many people who claim 00:08:20.880 |
to know Jesus and to claim to believe in this truth are unwilling to share this. Well, the 00:08:29.400 |
gospel itself, right off the bat, is offensive. Very first thing about the gospel is very 00:08:33.920 |
offensive. Today, you know, we have this movement of being gospel-centered, but oftentimes when 00:08:38.760 |
somebody says gospel-centered, they're talking about the very end part of the gospel. You 00:08:43.480 |
know, they're talking about how we've sinned and no matter what you do, Jesus loves you 00:08:48.360 |
and He died for you. It doesn't matter what you do because it's only what He did. And 00:08:53.120 |
so we're talking about the very end part where He forgives your sin. And so you can do whatever 00:08:57.360 |
you want. Maybe you shouldn't, but it doesn't matter because God loves you no matter what. 00:09:01.440 |
Now why would that message be offensive? Why would the message of universal love, unconditional, 00:09:07.880 |
no matter what you do, you have a free ticket to Heaven if you say you believe in Jesus? 00:09:12.240 |
Why would that be so offensive? But when you take a careful look at the gospel, Paul's 00:09:16.800 |
about to jump in to the depth of the gospel starting from verse 18. And we're going to 00:09:21.640 |
get into that next week. But verse 18, he begins a clear and thorough presentation of 00:09:27.520 |
the gospel by saying, "For the wrath of God is being revealed in Heaven against all ungodliness, 00:09:33.040 |
unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." The beginning of the 00:09:39.080 |
gospel presents and clarifies where we stand before Him. We are not neutral, the scripture 00:09:46.680 |
says. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So the first three chapters, 00:09:52.520 |
Paul digs in to the depth of depravity of mankind. So by the time you get to chapter 00:09:57.760 |
3, verse 10, I mean if you haven't been offended by then, you will definitely be offended. 00:10:02.280 |
I'm not going to go there now. You may want to look at it later, right? But if you haven't 00:10:06.200 |
read it, brace yourself because you don't come out good, right? He starts right off 00:10:11.040 |
the bat. All have sinned. God is not happy with you. God is angry. The wrath of God is 00:10:17.720 |
being revealed. Those of you who have the law, you're guilty with the law. Those of 00:10:22.680 |
you who don't have the law, you're guilty without the law. We're all guilty under God. 00:10:27.200 |
We're all guilty of judgment. So to a humanist, it is extremely offensive to sit down with 00:10:36.200 |
somebody and to tell them that God is not happy with you. When all the message that 00:10:41.160 |
we are receiving in our generation is just self-esteem, you know, you're good. You know, 00:10:48.360 |
at the core of who you are, you're good. And that's why God saw something precious in you. 00:10:52.160 |
And that's why he loved you. That's why he pursued you. But that's not what the Bible 00:10:56.000 |
says. The Bible said his pursuit was despite our ugliness, despite our rejection, despite 00:11:03.400 |
where we stood before God, he came after us. So the very beginning of the message is offensive. 00:11:11.480 |
At the heart of the gospel message is the identity of Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ 00:11:16.800 |
is the Son of God and he is God himself. He made that very clear. He said, "Before Abraham 00:11:22.040 |
was I am." He was saying that the God of the Old Testament that these Jews bowed down and 00:11:27.800 |
worshipped was him. And later on Paul clarifies that everything was made by him and for him. 00:11:37.840 |
So at the heart of the gospel message is that Jesus Christ is God. Now that is offensive 00:11:43.640 |
to all kinds of people. It's offensive to Muslims. It offends Jehovah's Witnesses. If 00:11:50.560 |
you sit down and talk with them and detail what they mean by that, they're offended by 00:11:53.920 |
that. In fact a while back I was trying to share the gospel with this Jewish lady and 00:11:59.760 |
as I was talking I quoted the New Testament. I said, "The New Testament." And then she 00:12:04.400 |
just stopped. She said, "Peter, what you said to me was very offensive." And I said, "What 00:12:09.600 |
do you mean?" She said, "We don't believe in the New Testament. We only read the Old 00:12:15.400 |
Testament." Obviously she doesn't call it Old Testament. She calls it the Torah. "We 00:12:19.560 |
only believe in the Torah. And it's offensive to me when you call it the New Testament." 00:12:24.840 |
And in the back of my mind I was thinking I'm very offended by what you just said. You 00:12:28.320 |
know what I mean? I'm offended that you're offended. But just to mention that there's 00:12:34.400 |
a New Testament, obviously that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all these prophecies 00:12:38.760 |
was offensive to her. In fact, again at the heart of the gospel message and why these 00:12:44.520 |
things are necessary that all have sin and that Jesus Christ the Son of God and the crux 00:12:51.120 |
of this gospel message is that Jesus Christ crucified is the only salvation for mankind. 00:12:58.440 |
Only salvation. If you say that Jesus Christ is a Savior that doesn't offend a lot of people. 00:13:03.840 |
It's like, "Oh, that works for you." Right? And I'm glad that you believe that. But once 00:13:09.120 |
you begin to proclaim what Jesus meant by it when He said, "I am the way and the truth 00:13:12.960 |
and life. Nobody comes to the Father but through me." In Acts chapter 4, 12, "And there is 00:13:20.000 |
salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by 00:13:25.240 |
which we must be saved." In our pluralistic, relativistic society to make an absolute claim 00:13:35.360 |
of Jesus being the only way. Maybe there's some of you sitting here thinking, "You know 00:13:39.840 |
what? You can preach Jesus. You can preach about what He did. You can preach about His 00:13:43.320 |
love and even His holiness. But once you begin to say that He's the exclusive only way of 00:13:49.440 |
salvation, that's arrogant. Maybe you can say, you know, that, "Maybe the Bible says 00:13:54.960 |
this but I'm not really that convinced." Or maybe, you know, who knows God's going to 00:13:59.280 |
be the judge and that seems to be the popular way that a lot of these televangelists seems 00:14:03.360 |
to answer questions. You know, "Do you really believe that a Muslim can't be saved or a 00:14:09.080 |
Jehovah Witness or a Buddhist can't be saved?" And a lot of the way that these people answer 00:14:15.000 |
these questions because they know the kind of response they're going to get from the 00:14:18.320 |
world. "Oh, you know, we preach the love of Christ but I don't want to be the judge. I'm 00:14:24.040 |
going to leave the judgment to God." Well, God did make a judgment and that's why we 00:14:28.000 |
have the Word of God. And Scripture made that absolutely crystal clear. So at the core of 00:14:33.880 |
the Gospel, when you are preaching and teaching what it says, it is very offensive. And the 00:14:40.840 |
moment you try to make the Gospel less offensive by tweaking the Gospel in such a way that 00:14:46.720 |
it doesn't sound as offensive is no longer the Gospel. And so I have to say in many circles, 00:14:54.400 |
even under the term evangelical Christians, that this has happened because we're trying 00:14:59.560 |
very hard not to make the offense. We can talk about Jesus without offending people. 00:15:05.920 |
We can talk about salvation of sin without offending people. We can talk about the exclusivicity 00:15:10.560 |
of Christ without offending people, if that was even possible. See, this preaching of 00:15:17.960 |
the Gospel has never been accepted by the majority. It's never been a situation where 00:15:25.520 |
all people who are claiming to be Christians were out there proclaiming the Gospel and 00:15:30.120 |
a lot of fruit came from a lot of people. If you look at church history, you'll always 00:15:34.120 |
find a few people who are not ashamed of the Gospel bearing a lot of fruit. And that's 00:15:41.880 |
what's happening here with Paul. Paul's trying to encourage this church and the early 00:15:46.000 |
church to gear up for this struggle. And so Paul says, again at the end of verse 13, he 00:15:54.440 |
says, "I'm eager to preach the Gospel." And then he, verse 16, he says the same thing 00:15:58.040 |
the opposite way, "I am not ashamed of preaching the Gospel." In other words, he's declaring 00:16:03.960 |
that this is why I'm so bold. This is why I'm willing to go to prison and even die in 00:16:10.960 |
preaching this Gospel. So what I want to look at this morning, and I'm going to spend bulk 00:16:16.560 |
of the time in the first point and then sometime at the latter point, why was Paul able to 00:16:22.840 |
be so bold? What gave him this boldness? And what gives us this boldness to preach the 00:16:27.840 |
Gospel? First thing, boldness comes from knowing the truth and being convicted of it. Let me 00:16:36.480 |
say it again. Boldness comes from knowing the truth and being convicted of it. As an 00:16:44.640 |
example, if you go into a doctor's office, the information they give you typically is 00:16:50.560 |
not wishy-washy, because it doesn't help. If somebody says, "I think you're sick. I 00:16:56.720 |
think your leg is broken." No, they got to give you a definitive answer. You go and get 00:17:01.240 |
an x-ray and they look at it and say, "It's broken." And they'll show you why it's broken. 00:17:05.960 |
Here's the symptoms of broken. And then they'll tell you how to fix it. You go to a doctor's 00:17:10.560 |
office, "It could be broken." "What do I do about it?" "You could do this, you could 00:17:15.960 |
do that." Right? And if you're not clear, the reason why they're able to be bold is 00:17:20.760 |
because they look at it and from their experience, from their education, they look at it and 00:17:26.520 |
say, "Well, this is the truth. This is what's going on." "Oh, it's so inconvenient. If my 00:17:30.320 |
leg is broken, it'd be so inconvenient. I can't go to work and I got to put this cast 00:17:34.120 |
on and I got a basketball game coming up." And it's like, "Okay, okay. You know, I don't 00:17:39.200 |
want to offend you. I don't want to make your life uncomfortable." It's like, "No, the doctor's 00:17:42.400 |
going to tell you. You're going to have to quit work, even if you can't go in and make 00:17:46.040 |
a living. They have to tell you because they know that this is true. And this is true of 00:17:50.880 |
you." Engineer walks in, looks at the building and says, "You know what, engineer, the structure 00:17:56.280 |
is not safe and everybody needs to move out." And say, "Wait a second. If this happens, 00:18:00.120 |
we can't meet. We have over 400 people at the church and where are we going to move 00:18:04.000 |
them?" It's like, "I don't know where you're going to move them. I'm just telling you that 00:18:07.480 |
this is what I know, you know. And we'll deal with the consequences, but I'm telling you 00:18:12.200 |
what I know is that this building is unsafe." He has to speak with conviction. You might 00:18:19.320 |
be a lawyer, right? And somebody comes in and asks about this contract and you're reading 00:18:23.640 |
it and they say, you know, and say, "Well, is it safe? Is this okay for us to enter this 00:18:27.840 |
contract?" "Yeah." You know. "You might get sued. You might lose your house." "Yeah, I 00:18:33.040 |
don't know." You know. No, they speak with clarity because that's what they know. Paul 00:18:39.120 |
speaks with clarity and with conviction and boldness because he's absolutely convinced 00:18:45.000 |
that this is true. And he understands the consequences. So Paul says 2 Corinthians 2, 00:18:52.120 |
17, "For we are not like so many peddlers of the Word of God. But as men of sincerity, 00:18:57.480 |
as commissioned by God, the side of God, we speak in Christ." So think about that. Even 00:19:03.720 |
in the early church, there were people who were peddling the Word of God. Some of them 00:19:08.040 |
were preaching the gospel for their own personal gain. Does that happen today? I'm pretty sure 00:19:15.760 |
it does happen. But people who peddle the Word of God as soon as the benefit that comes 00:19:22.840 |
from preaching the Word of God is no longer worthy of pursuit, they're gone. As soon as 00:19:29.160 |
it's hard to take care of family or difficulties or whatever, they'll pack up and they'll leave. 00:19:34.640 |
And I think that's the first thing that disqualifies somebody from a gospel preacher. That if we 00:19:40.760 |
are not convicted that this is the truth, and at all costs that this must go out where 00:19:45.720 |
Paul says, "I'm compelled to do this." 2 Corinthians 3, 12, after Paul presents to the 00:19:51.560 |
Corinthians that here's the truth of the gospel, how the glory of Christ, the revelation of 00:19:57.520 |
this is causing this for people to grow and to come to him. After giving a thorough presentation 00:20:03.080 |
of the gospel in 2 Corinthians 3, 12 it says, "Since we have such a hope, we are very bold." 00:20:10.720 |
Paul says his boldness comes from knowing and being convicted of this truth. In fact, 00:20:17.120 |
in the book of Acts chapter 4, 13, Peter preaches the first gospel. And in this first gospel, 00:20:23.680 |
he remember he's preaching in front of the very same people who declared, "Crucify him, 00:20:28.840 |
crucify him." The leaders who made the decision to get rid of Jesus that Peter was afraid 00:20:34.880 |
of, that all the other disciples were afraid of it, and they were hiding before Jesus went 00:20:39.000 |
to the cross. But after the cross, he's standing in front of the same people and he begins 00:20:43.880 |
to preach the gospel, convicting them, "You crucified the author of life." And they were 00:20:51.240 |
amazed. This is what they say, Acts 4, 13, "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and 00:20:57.680 |
John and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished and they 00:21:04.840 |
recognized that they had been with Jesus." They were so dumbfounded by their boldness. 00:21:11.440 |
Don't these guys know that just as if we were able to kill Jesus, I mean, killing them would 00:21:17.960 |
be nothing. You know? If these guys were able to get rid of Jesus who was being followed 00:21:23.400 |
around by thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of his disciples in that area, why would they 00:21:29.880 |
think that this is not going to happen to them? Where did they get their boldness? It 00:21:35.760 |
wasn't because all of a sudden Peter realized, "Ah, he can't touch me, I have the Holy Spirit." 00:21:40.120 |
That's not where his boldness was coming from. He was confused. When Jesus was saying that 00:21:45.480 |
he was going to go to the cross, all his disciples were hearing, "Okay, I don't get why you're 00:21:50.200 |
going to the cross, but after the Kingdom comes, will you let me sit to the left or 00:21:54.160 |
to the right? Who's going to be the greatest?" They were thinking about the benefit. But 00:21:58.720 |
after the cross, everything, all the bits and pieces, the puzzles that they were hearing 00:22:03.640 |
from Jesus came together and all of a sudden it became clear. Everything that Jesus said. 00:22:10.440 |
They were already convinced about Jesus, they just weren't convinced about what he was saying. 00:22:14.360 |
And all of a sudden, they became bold. They realized that even in death, that there's 00:22:21.320 |
life. Boldness comes from knowing and being convicted of this truth. If we're not convinced 00:22:31.880 |
that this is true, we will not be bold. How can you be bold about saying this to anybody? 00:22:41.440 |
You can't casually preach the Gospel. No more than you can casually come into a room and 00:22:47.160 |
say, "If you don't leave, this room is going to burn down." You can't casually tell somebody 00:22:53.160 |
you have cancer. You can't casually tell somebody, "Pack up your bags and get out of this building 00:22:59.040 |
because it's going to collapse." You can't casually say that unless it's true. You cannot 00:23:07.520 |
casually commit to preaching the Gospel. What it claims is too serious and too intense. 00:23:16.800 |
And that's why Paul says, "I am not ashamed because I am convinced that it is the power 00:23:21.680 |
of God for salvation." The Gospel is the power that saves. Think about all the advancements 00:23:31.120 |
in the last hundred years. Every time I use my smartphone, I'm amazed. I know some of 00:23:38.040 |
you guys are kind of amazed. It's just a phone. Right? And again, I didn't have a cell phone 00:23:43.640 |
until I was 30 years old. Internet probably, what, about the same time. And my smartphone 00:23:50.560 |
probably, what, I had what, the last two years now? And so now every once in a while, I use 00:23:54.680 |
a smartphone and I'm talking to Pastor Alex in China and I'm texting him. It's like, "Oh 00:24:00.200 |
my gosh, I'm talking to this guy. This guy's in China right now." I mean, not seem like 00:24:05.240 |
a big deal, but the very first time I went out to China, I mean, to make one phone call 00:24:09.840 |
was a big, big ordeal. Right? The fact that I can look up something, I can say, "Oh, I 00:24:14.520 |
wonder if that's true." You know? Before, when I used to have that thought, I'd have 00:24:18.520 |
to, "Okay, I think I'm available Tuesday morning. I'm going to clear my schedule, drive to Biola, 00:24:25.080 |
look up these reference books." And I had to make about a four or five hour commitment 00:24:29.160 |
next Tuesday to see if I can get an answer to this question. Today, like, "Oh, I wonder. 00:24:34.640 |
Is this true?" Boom. Right? With all the technological advancements that we have, right? Set somebody 00:24:45.220 |
to the moon, creating the atomic bomb, atomic energy, airplanes, automobiles. You know, 00:24:52.960 |
14 years ago, had the huge tin towers, the terrorist attack. And then now you go back 00:24:58.920 |
over there and they built this tower even more magnificent than before. Robotics and 00:25:03.920 |
other talk about artificial intelligence. Why not? Considering everything that we were 00:25:08.760 |
able to advance in. But one thing has always been true, will always remain true. That the 00:25:17.760 |
core of who man is, you can advance yourself to make yourself more knowledgeable, more 00:25:24.800 |
honored, more wealth, more comfortable, more influence. Whether you are the richest man 00:25:31.600 |
on earth or the poorest man on earth, you cannot change the nature of your being. The 00:25:40.080 |
scripture says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." This corrupt nature 00:25:44.280 |
that hangs with us, even in your wildest dreams coming true, at the core of the problem of 00:25:50.680 |
who we are, there's nothing that you and I could do about it. No amount of human advancement 00:25:56.440 |
can ever touch this. That's why in chapter 3, the paralytic come into Jesus and they 00:26:02.840 |
wanted him to heal them. Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven." And they were offended. 00:26:07.020 |
And they were right to be offended because they understood, "Who can dare say this? Only 00:26:13.920 |
God could forgive sins. Even Moses can't say that. Elijah can't say that. David can't say 00:26:20.520 |
that. How dare you say that?" Jesus turns to them and says, "Which is harder to do? To 00:26:27.920 |
say your sins are forgiven or get up and walk?" You have to remember, Jesus is the Son of 00:26:34.000 |
God. He declared to be God Himself. The scripture says that everything was made by Him and for 00:26:40.080 |
Him. He made the whole universe by His words. So what is it to Him to tell Him, "Your sins 00:26:49.920 |
are forgiven." I mean, to get up and walk. Nothing. He could create a whole new being 00:26:55.880 |
from dust to just fix a crooked leg. A broken spine to Him is nothing. In other words, what 00:27:04.200 |
was Jesus saying? His display of power was not in feeding of the 5,000. His display of 00:27:11.520 |
power was not to get the lame to walk or walking on the shores in the storm. That was not the 00:27:19.720 |
display of His power. His display of His power was to say, "Your sins are forgiven." That's 00:27:30.160 |
the greatest display. That's why in Romans chapter 10, 17, "So faith comes from hearing 00:27:34.800 |
and hearing through the Word of Christ." The only thing that can change an individual and 00:27:40.520 |
transform his destiny for eternal, eternity, is Christ crucified. Preaching of Christ crucified. 00:27:51.600 |
And when somebody hears the Word of Christ and believes it, it has the power to save 00:27:56.400 |
him, transform him inside and out. That's why 1 Corinthians 1, 18, Paul says again, 00:28:03.680 |
"For the Word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being 00:28:08.360 |
saved it is the power of God." It is a mistake to think that in the church, that if we are 00:28:15.760 |
organized enough, if we have a certain way of doing things, and if we have this help 00:28:21.760 |
and that help, if we have some kind of accountability, people don't change because they meet the 00:28:26.360 |
right people. If I'm surrounded by certain people, I change. Superficially, yes. Nothing 00:28:34.840 |
has the power to transform and to save a soul. No amount of money, no amount of technology, 00:28:41.600 |
no amount of influence is able to save souls. Scripture says, "My sheep hear My voice, and 00:28:48.560 |
they follow Me." Christ crucified. And again, in 1 Corinthians 15, 1, it says, "Now I would 00:28:57.120 |
remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received and which you stand, 00:29:02.200 |
and by which you are being saved." Not only were you saved, but a Christian who is genuinely 00:29:08.160 |
saved is in the process of being saved. He's being transformed from one kingdom to another. 00:29:13.600 |
We talked about a couple weeks ago. And if you hold fast to the Word, I preach to you, 00:29:17.600 |
unless you believed in vain. In other words, unless your faith was not real, right? You 00:29:25.320 |
just professed because you wanted to belong. Only the clear preaching of the Word of God, 00:29:33.920 |
clear preaching of Christ, can save people. Despite the organization, despite the lack 00:29:41.720 |
of ability, despite the money, despite the training. Travel anywhere outside the United 00:29:52.440 |
States who doesn't have even the tenth of the resources that you and I have. And the 00:29:57.480 |
church is strong. Evangelists are powerful. The gospel is spreading in force. And yet, 00:30:07.360 |
you come to the United States where we have all the resources that in the last 2,000 years 00:30:11.920 |
put together could not match with the resources that you and I have. And yet, we don't have 00:30:17.520 |
the same power. Because the power is not with the resources. The power is in the gospel. 00:30:25.120 |
That's why Paul says he is not ashamed. He is absolutely convinced of this truth. For 00:30:30.240 |
the gospel, he says in verse 17, not only does it save, he says it reveals the righteousness 00:30:34.920 |
of God from faith to faith. Typically, when we think about the gospel, we think it reveals 00:30:40.920 |
His mercy, right? It's like, "Ah, you know, the gospel shows His mercy and His grace and 00:30:46.680 |
His patience with sinners." But we don't typically think about righteousness being displayed 00:30:52.640 |
by the gospel, right? We think of grace, mercy. So what does he mean when he says the gospel 00:31:01.320 |
is the revelation of God's righteousness? What does that mean? God's righteousness is 00:31:06.640 |
displayed in two ways. One, the gospel, the cross, reveals His nature of righteousness. 00:31:16.680 |
Let me explain what I mean by that. The scripture says very clearly that God's nature cannot 00:31:22.680 |
be changed. In fact, Hebrews 6, 17-18, let me read that for you. "So when God desired 00:31:27.840 |
to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of 00:31:31.600 |
His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which 00:31:36.600 |
it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement 00:31:41.520 |
to hold fast to the hope set before." So let me summarize what he says here. There's two 00:31:45.240 |
things that he cannot do. One, he cannot change his nature and he cannot lie, which in essence 00:31:50.880 |
is the same thing. God is immutable in what He says and God is immutable in who He is. 00:31:57.200 |
The reason why he says that is that the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the 00:32:01.840 |
New Testament. He didn't all of a sudden decide, you know what, I'm just going to forget about 00:32:07.320 |
it. All the warnings that he gave to the Old Testament believers and saying, you know what, 00:32:12.880 |
if you obey my commands, here's some blessing that's going to come to you. And if you disobey 00:32:17.600 |
my commands, here's some curses that's going to come to you. And all of a sudden Jesus 00:32:21.180 |
shows up and He says, you know what, I know I said all of these things, just forget about 00:32:26.640 |
it. Just forget. I'm just going to be gracious and I'm just going to forget about it. Which 00:32:30.120 |
a lot of people think that that's what the gospel is, right? Just forget about it, right? 00:32:36.040 |
And I'm just going to display my mercy. So we have a tendency to think that in the Old 00:32:39.600 |
Testament God was very harsh and He was judgmental and He was righteous and He's angry. He comes 00:32:45.480 |
to the New Testament, He's just like, He's almost like we have a sanctified God, right? 00:32:50.320 |
He's sanctified. He grew. He matured. You know what I mean? So now He's not so angry. 00:32:55.480 |
He's just gracious. But that's not what Paul says. He says the gospel actually is a display 00:33:01.240 |
of His righteousness, of His nature. You have to understand the primary understanding of 00:33:10.120 |
the Jews after they receive all that. Remember Jonah? Remember why he didn't want to go to 00:33:16.360 |
Nineveh? And he didn't want to go to Nineveh because he was afraid that if he warned them 00:33:22.880 |
about the judgment coming and they repent that God would forgive them. And that's exactly 00:33:29.000 |
what happens. He goes back and he reluctantly warns them and they all repent, even the king. 00:33:35.480 |
And then he gets angry. He said, I knew it. I knew it. I knew you were gracious and I 00:33:41.320 |
knew you were merciful and I knew you would forgive their sins. See the Jews already knew 00:33:46.920 |
that. Jews already knew how merciful and how patient God was with that nation. They should 00:33:52.880 |
have been wiped out a long time ago. But how was God going to save and be merciful and 00:33:58.560 |
yet not forfeit who He is? See that's the cross. He didn't just simply say, he snapped 00:34:07.920 |
fingers and said, okay, okay, you know, I'm just going to forget about all your sins. 00:34:12.600 |
God cannot deny Himself. There's nothing that He does where His holiness and His love is 00:34:19.080 |
in somehow contradiction. See at the cross is where His holiness and His love is displayed 00:34:28.680 |
to the greatest. Let me explain. When Jesus was going to the cross, Jesus said, I'm going 00:34:37.480 |
to glorify you. And Father, it's time for you to glorify the Son. So at the cross, God 00:34:43.920 |
is glorified and the Son is glorified. And how was He being glorified? There's two natures, 00:34:51.880 |
nature of God. And really it's the same nature, but it's a two nature displayed where His 00:34:57.040 |
holiness and His love. It says God is holy. God is love. Now sometimes we think, well, 00:35:02.680 |
either you're love or you're holy, you can't go hand in hand. But the cross was the perfect 00:35:08.440 |
display of His holiness. So when we think about His holiness, where is His holiness 00:35:15.760 |
in the greatest of display? It's at the cross. Because at the cross where all of His wrath, 00:35:25.720 |
all of the judgment of mankind, past, present and future that He has elected was at display, 00:35:33.320 |
putting it upon Jesus. You remember when Jesus, when God was angry with the nations and He 00:35:40.120 |
was angry with them and He brought the flood? Yeah, I mean we would think, well, that's 00:35:43.200 |
the greatest display of His righteous anger. But that was only anger for them. That was 00:35:49.480 |
only justice for them. At the cross, Jesus took upon Himself the wrath of past, present 00:35:57.000 |
and future of all generations. So it is at the cross where we see the greatest display 00:36:03.720 |
of His righteousness. And as it's being displayed, on the flip side of that, that as He absorbs 00:36:12.440 |
it, the greatest display of His love. You know, we often think about Jesus, how He humbled 00:36:18.600 |
Himself and He washed the disciples' feet. And yes, I mean, yes, that was very humble 00:36:23.400 |
and it was a very great display. But that was for the disciples. That was for them at 00:36:28.240 |
that time. But the greatest display of His grace and mercy was at the cross, when it 00:36:35.480 |
was the darkest. And so when we think about, well, who is God? What is the greatest thing 00:36:43.440 |
that you and I ought to think of? It's the cross. Let me give you an example. You know, 00:36:50.400 |
we talk about, you know, I don't remember the details, but there are some games that 00:36:53.680 |
Michael Jordan played. And I know some of you guys say, "Oh, it's Kobe, Michael Jordan." 00:36:57.160 |
All right, so let's end this debate now, okay? It's Michael Jordan. All right, so there's 00:37:02.080 |
some games that Michael Jordan played that it was just ridiculous. And I don't remember 00:37:06.000 |
the details, but when you think about and say, "Hey, what's the display?" When there's 00:37:09.440 |
this argument between Kobe and Michael Jordan, like, okay, so you say he's the greatest. 00:37:14.960 |
Well, prove it, right? Well, how do you prove it? You look at the game that he played that 00:37:22.320 |
magnifies his skills, right? And the greater the opposition, well, you know, Michael Jordan 00:37:28.240 |
came into this game and this other team, they had the best record of that season. Everybody 00:37:33.120 |
thought that they were going to win. Michael Jordan was actually sick that day. He had 00:37:37.880 |
a 102 fever and he barely was walking that morning. And, you know, and he had tragic 00:37:43.400 |
things happening in his life and everybody thought that there's no way that he had any 00:37:47.120 |
chance. And then he comes in and he scores 60 points and then he wins the game winning 00:37:51.160 |
shot with four guys defending him with his eyes closed. You know what I mean? So when 00:37:57.960 |
we talk about the greatness of Michael Jordan and his basketball skills, we look at a particular 00:38:04.640 |
game where this greatest access is displayed. And that's where we go when we say, "Here's 00:38:12.080 |
Michael Jordan." And you look at that, that's why we think he's the greatest. So when we 00:38:16.480 |
think about God, when we display God, when we present God, where do we go to present 00:38:22.800 |
God? Where is his greatest attribute at greatest display? It's at the cross. And so that's 00:38:32.040 |
what Paul is saying, that not only is it the power of God to save, but the righteousness 00:38:37.440 |
of God, his nature is at the greatest display at the cross. Not only is his nature displayed, 00:38:46.600 |
but because of his nature of righteousness being displayed, is that we've been affected. 00:38:51.680 |
2 Corinthians 5.21, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in 00:38:58.160 |
him we might become the righteousness of God." That in his righteousness displayed. That's 00:39:04.920 |
the difference between glorifying the world and glorifying Christ. We can glorify Michael 00:39:12.480 |
Jordan, put him on a pedestal, and we may find some satisfaction in doing that because 00:39:17.880 |
we're creatures of worship. But at the end of the day, there's emptiness. There's artificial 00:39:26.280 |
joy. But the scripture says when we magnify Christ and his righteousness, we're affected. 00:39:33.640 |
His righteousness becomes imputed to us. Not only do we display his glory, that in displaying 00:39:38.960 |
his glory, we are affected. And that's why Paul is saying, "I am not ashamed of this 00:39:46.080 |
gospel. That's why I am bold to proclaim this gospel." So we're bold about Lakers, 00:39:53.480 |
we're bold about Golden State Warriors, we're bold about some football teams, baseball teams, 00:40:01.440 |
all artificial, all superficial. But how about Christ? How about the gospel of Jesus Christ? 00:40:11.560 |
See, being convicted of this truth is what gives us boldness. Being affected by this 00:40:18.960 |
truth is what gives us boldness. But let me, I told you that's my first point. The second 00:40:24.280 |
point, and I'm going to spend a little bit of time on this, is the second reason why 00:40:28.880 |
he was bold is because he genuinely loved them. You can have all the truth and be convicted 00:40:35.640 |
of all of this and just not care. It's like, "Ah, okay, whatever." You know, you're saying, 00:40:40.560 |
"Oh, you believe it. That's good for you." But maybe you're convicted about it, but you 00:40:44.840 |
don't care if somebody is saved or not. Paul was bold because he genuinely desired them 00:40:52.400 |
to be saved. He was convinced that the only salvation for mankind is the gospel of Jesus 00:40:56.940 |
Christ, and he desired so much for people to be saved. Romans 9, 1-3, Paul says, "I 00:41:05.040 |
am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the 00:41:09.840 |
Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that 00:41:15.920 |
I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according 00:41:21.040 |
to the flesh. I desire so much that even if I was somehow able to trade spaces with the 00:41:27.280 |
nation of Israel, I would." Love gives us boldness. Love gives us boldness. Let me give 00:41:37.320 |
you an example. If you knew somebody in your life that was making poor choices. You know, 00:41:44.200 |
they're spending money frivolously, and they're always, you know, falling short in paying 00:41:48.280 |
bills, and their eating habits, and their just habits, period. They're just going down 00:41:53.860 |
the wrong path, and you're very concerned for them. Now, if they happen to be an acquaintance, 00:41:59.520 |
you might have a light conversation and say, "You know what? Oh, man, that guy is making 00:42:02.720 |
poor choices. I hope somebody would say something to them." You know? And if you're bold enough, 00:42:08.520 |
you'll bring them to me. You know, because that happens a lot. And I get an email, I 00:42:12.680 |
say, "Hey, this is happening. Can you please do something?" You know? So, that may be. 00:42:18.400 |
If there's your acquaintance, you may, you may have some boldness to say something. If 00:42:23.600 |
that's a friend of yours, depending on the quality of friendship you have, you may be 00:42:27.680 |
a little bit more bold. "Hey, let's get together and have lunch. I want to talk to you about 00:42:31.480 |
something." And you may, you may kind of say it in a way where it's like, "I don't want 00:42:35.040 |
to offend you, but here's some things I'm concerned because I genuinely care about you, 00:42:39.360 |
and I feel like I need to say this for your own good." And say, "Hey, hey, hey, don't 00:42:43.080 |
judge me." You know? And that may be enough for you to kind of say, "Okay, okay. He didn't 00:42:48.040 |
want to hear it. I've done my part." Right? If that's a family member, you'd be a little 00:42:52.760 |
bit more bold. If it's a sister, brother, father, mother, and say, "Hey, you know what? 00:42:56.920 |
These are consequences. Maybe you shouldn't be doing that." And they say, "Hey, hey, hey, 00:43:01.000 |
don't judge me." It's like, "What are you talking about? You know, I just want you to, 00:43:04.120 |
I want to make sure that you're doing the right thing." And you would be a little bit 00:43:06.440 |
more bold to speak the truth. But if that was your child, if that was your son or your 00:43:14.040 |
daughter making that mistake and going down the wrong path, and it's absolutely unacceptable 00:43:19.880 |
the consequences that's going to come their way, we will become emboldened to speak to 00:43:26.400 |
them. Because it's not acceptable, the consequence. You over there, you say, "You know what? I 00:43:33.920 |
don't want to be judgmental." And all of a sudden, you will be judgmental. "Oh, I don't 00:43:38.560 |
want to rock the world. I don't want them to dislike me." It's like, no matter how you 00:43:41.840 |
feel about me, you can't keep doing this. We become emboldened based upon the degree 00:43:48.080 |
of love that we have for that individual. So when Paul says, "I am enduring all things 00:43:55.760 |
for the sake of the elect," it's because he not only is convicted about these truths, 00:44:01.280 |
he desired so much for them to come to Christ as well. And that's why he says, "If I'm being 00:44:08.720 |
selfish, I'd rather die. The only reason why I would stay is because I want you to know 00:44:14.720 |
this Christ as well." Now, did Paul have this love the moment he met Christ? No. He hated 00:44:22.080 |
the Gentiles. In the context of obedience, God gave him love. So it was this love that 00:44:32.240 |
compelled him. What gives us boldness? First, are you convicted that the gospel is true? 00:44:40.480 |
And you say, "Oh, yeah, of course I believe it, you know." But really, enough to be uncomfortable, 00:44:50.880 |
enough to overcome awkwardness? Are you convinced enough that this is the only salvation, 00:44:59.440 |
only way that mankind could die and not be in judgment? Are we convinced of this truth? 00:45:08.400 |
And if we are, when's the last time we pleaded on behalf of this perishing world? 00:45:16.640 |
You know, there's a story of a monk named Telemachus. He was an early 5th century monk. 00:45:23.440 |
Even after the Roman Empire supposedly turned a Christian empire, the Colosseum and the 00:45:31.600 |
gladiator fights kept on going on. And they fought to the death, as all of us know. So 00:45:38.320 |
some of these were slaves. Some of these men were valiant warriors that were from another 00:45:43.680 |
nation and they got conquered so they became gladiators, strictly for the purpose of entertainment. 00:45:50.240 |
Well, this monk happened to enter into the Colosseum, Telemachus, and he saw it and he 00:45:55.440 |
was so grieved by what he saw, he entered and tried to stop it. And the crowd turned 00:46:01.440 |
on him, saying, "What are you doing? Why are you judging us?" And they ended up stoning 00:46:07.520 |
him publicly. Now, being this supposedly, superficially being a Christian empire, seeing 00:46:16.080 |
a helpless monk stoned to death by this crowd, after it was done, they said there was a dead 00:46:23.120 |
silence that came over everybody, horrified by what they saw. And as a result of that, 00:46:28.800 |
the emperor of that period decided this is enough. 00:46:35.200 |
There's things happening today in our culture. All of you have probably seen these anti-abortion 00:46:42.080 |
films that have been coming out, interviewing the executives of Planned Parenthood. And 00:46:46.800 |
yesterday there was a huge rally, getting together in front of Planned Parenthood and 00:46:51.280 |
protesting. And again, it's horrific things that's been going on in the last 50, 60 years 00:46:57.600 |
of US history, all over the world. And now this collective outrage because of these videos, 00:47:04.320 |
and rightfully so, it's horrific what we've been seeing. And so many people are outraged 00:47:10.880 |
and up in arms, and we've been hearing this steady drumbeat on the internet, on television, 00:47:17.280 |
on the radio, that something needs to be done. This is not just a Christian thing. It's 00:47:22.000 |
not just a Republican thing. The Democrats alike, in fact, in our generation, they say 00:47:29.280 |
that in the last 30 years, the tide toward homosexual marriage and to broad acceptance 00:47:35.920 |
of homosexuality, we've been losing the war on that. And more and more people are readily 00:47:41.360 |
accepting of that. But this abortion thing, some positive news, the tide has been turning. 00:47:47.760 |
I've read recently that majority of the people in the United States are actually against 00:47:53.040 |
it. And you don't have to be a Christian to be against it. You just look at some of 00:47:55.680 |
the pictures. Just logically speaking, how can you say that that's not a human being? 00:48:01.120 |
So rightfully so, there is this outrage. We need to do something about this. But let's 00:48:08.320 |
get some perspective. As horrific as that scene is, and being revealed, being exposed 00:48:17.360 |
to this revelation of what's going on, there has been a steady drumbeat from the preaching 00:48:24.720 |
of the Word of God that we neither be ashamed of the Gospel, for in it is the power of God 00:48:32.480 |
for salvation to everyone who believes. In it is the righteousness of God revealed from 00:48:38.560 |
faith to faith. And there has been a steady drumbeat for the last 2,000 years that if 00:48:46.960 |
we are outraged and horrified by babies being mutilated, and yet be so numb as to the souls 00:48:57.200 |
who are perishing every single day without even hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that 00:49:02.560 |
you and I confess is the only way of salvation for mankind. And then to live every single 00:49:10.640 |
day for the rest of our lives like everybody else. How can we be so outraged over one and 00:49:20.400 |
be so numb over the other? There has been a steady drumbeat by the preaching of the 00:49:28.960 |
Word of God, by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by the groaning of the Holy Spirit. The world 00:49:37.840 |
is in darkness that the Son of God came over His throne, being equal with God in every 00:49:44.400 |
way, did not consider equality with God to be grasped, but became nothing, took on the 00:49:52.080 |
form of a servant, became one of us, even put to death on a cross, humiliated. How can 00:50:03.120 |
that not affect us? So the Scripture screams out, "Do not be ashamed of the Gospel. It 00:50:13.360 |
is the power of God for salvation." Would you take a minute to pray with me together? 00:50:21.520 |
I want to ask you bluntly, do you believe this truth? Are you convicted? And if you 00:50:31.440 |
are, do you care? Jesus said, "The greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with 00:50:40.240 |
all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." So first 00:50:47.200 |
question, am I convinced of this truth? Do I believe this? There is no half-hearted conviction, 00:50:57.840 |
there's no half-hearted commitment, either you do or you don't. To come before the Lord 00:51:02.960 |
with honest confession, to not to allow ourselves to just drift along with the rest of the generation, 00:51:09.680 |
valuing what they value, rejoicing over what they rejoice over, being saddened over the 00:51:14.480 |
same things that they're saddened over, but to come before the Lord in confession, "Forgive 00:51:22.480 |
me for having a callous heart. Forgive me for forgetting about the lost. Forgive me 00:51:31.720 |
for not being affected by what you've done for me." To confess that before the Lord 00:51:37.320 |
and ask the Lord that the Holy Spirit would continue to grip us, that we would make the 00:51:42.320 |
same confession. So let's take some time to pray as we invite our praise team to come