Good evening, gentlemen, and welcome back. A little J.S. Bach from our organist Stephen Sturz. He has been serving Grace Community Church and blessing the body of Christ here for 47 years. And J.S. Bach, that great composer who declared that all music should be for the glory of God. And that certainly is our aim tonight.

Psalm 33 says, "Sing for joy in Yahweh, O righteous ones. Praise is becoming to the upright. Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully with a loud shout. For the word of Yahweh is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness." So let's sing for joy together as we give glory to God for the great things he has done.

Please find a hymns of grace and turn to number 19. This should make all the old Baptists very happy. Number 19, "To God be the glory, great things he has done." And would you stand, please, as we sing? Thank you once again. The African-American spirituals of the 19th century did frame truths and testimonies like nothing else.

And that was "My Soul's Been Anchored," arranged by the late Moses Hogan. Well, our final choral piece this evening is a familiar hymn. And why should the choir sing it when we all could? Well, again, in keeping with our purpose to make truth memorable, my prayer is that the artistry and beauty of this setting-- which, by the way, is arranged by Gilbert Martin-- the artistry and beauty of the setting would help you to hear and think on this familiar hymn text in a new and profound way when I survey the wondrous cross.

Well, brethren, after-- should I bring this down? OK. Just making sure. Yeah. After that wonderful singing, yeah, one can't wait for heaven when all the ransomed throng of God will join our voices to praise the Lamb of God. And I'm sure most of you, as was already hinted, will get back after this conference to our small congregations.

We may feel that it is a bit of an anticlimax, but I hope it will be an encouragement to you that soon, and very soon, those few voices, together with others, will not just lift the roof of a building like this, but whatever it is that is the canopy over heaven, as we join the angels to praise the Lord.

My message this evening is entitled "Not Ashamed of the Gospel." And you can anticipate that this is from Romans and chapter 1. We will primarily be considering verse 16 and verse 17. The challenge with preaching from this passage is the fact that we are dealing with, first of all, the Bible itself, which is the greatest piece of writing across the whole of human history.

And when we come to the book of Romans, we are really dealing with that book within this wider book that no doubt stands out in terms of its extraordinary display of the grace of God in salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so to come to any section of it and try and expound it, your heart is filled with a sense of ecstasy because you realize that this is something the whole world needs to hear.

You are, as it were, reading and holding in your hands that which is the highest message of not only planet Earth, but also of the entire universe. No doubt the Apostle Paul knew this, and that's the very reason why he was seeking to get to Rome. It was his ambition that one day he would stand in the capital city of the known world at that time, where the greatest powers, potentates, had reigned over the years, to go there and to say to all, "Behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world." And therefore, as he opens up this epistle, he does so already wanting us to know something of this gospel that he longs to preach there.

Normally when the Apostle Paul is beginning any of his writings, he'll introduce himself, usually in just one sentence. Sometimes all he says is, "Paul, Silas, and Timothy," and then moves on. But in this particular case, we have the longest piece of self-introduction. And when you read it, it's not really Paul introducing himself.

It's Paul giving us already something of the summary of this gospel that he is not ashamed of. He gives, as you read through that introduction from verse 1 to verse 6, first of all, that he's not ashamed of this message because it's the gospel of God. Isn't it the way he puts it?

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. Now that's not the way Paul normally introduces the gospel. He speaks of it as the gospel of Jesus Christ. But in this particular case, he wants to make it abundantly clear that it is the good news of the creator of the universe, the governor of history, the redeemer of his people, the coming judge of the living and the dead.

He goes on to tell us that this message is one that in fact has been promised by this God right across the Old Testament. He says which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures. He tells us who is at the center of this message. Concerning his son.

If you miss that, you've missed the gospel. The gospel is not a method about how you and God can come together. It is an announcement concerning a redeemer, a savior, one who comes into our circumstances to rescue us from condemnation and all else that God has included in that little phrase, the curse of God because of sin.

Speaking about his son, he quickly tells us two facts concerning this son. First of all, his humanity, who was descended from David according to the flesh. And then his divinity, and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

As we've already heard, there is no one else in the whole of history who can be described this way. The God-man. Jesus had to be both in order to rescue us from our sin. He had to be man because he was taking our place, dying our death, drinking in our hell, that we may not go through that process.

But he also had to be God because if he was a mere man, first of all, he would have only died for one other man, but worse still, he would have sunk deeper than the grave into the flames of hell forever. But because he is God, he could pay the price for millions upon millions, billions upon billions, trillions upon trillions of his elect people because the value of his death was infinite.

The Apostle Paul goes on to say here that it is because of him that we are now proclaimers of this message. He's given us that call. He puts it this way, "Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith," and then he says, "For the sake of his name among all the nations." We are speaking here about proclaiming Christ to the ends of the earth.

Paul is saying we did not simply volunteer to do this. We didn't say to ourselves, "This is a good idea. Let's spend the rest of our lives doing this." He's saying this Jesus called us to do this work so that we may be in the front rank of a great army of preachers that will ensure over history to get this message to the ends of the earth.

Can anybody be ashamed of such a message in the light of this brief summary that we've just noted here? But then, before we get to our text, the Apostle Paul moves one step further and speaks about his fondness for the people of God who are already gathered, saved by grace in Rome.

He speaks of, first of all, the fact that he thanked God for them. I'll read verse 7 to just bridge the gap, but we'll go to verse 8. "To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Then he says, "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is proclaimed in all the world." In other words, there is evidence that this gospel has borne fruit in Rome, that lives have been changed, that from being idolaters, individuals have been brought together to become worshippers of the living God.

And testimony of this has begun to spread in the known world. And Paul goes on to say, "Because of this, I pray for you and I long to come there so that I might have fellowship with you so that I may be a blessing to you and you may be a blessing to me." Look at the way he puts it there in verse 9.

"For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that somehow, by God's will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you, that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." It is after that, that Paul then really gets back to this gospel and speaks in terms of why he wants to get to Rome.

And it is this, that I want to win souls in Rome. God, by his grace, has enabled me to preach around other parts of the world, in Asia, all the way into Macedonia and Achaia, but I cannot wait to bring this same message to the capital city of the world, that I may win souls there.

I love the way in which he puts it. Listen to this, verse 13 down to verse 15. He says, "I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as well as among the rest of the Gentiles." Paul there is speaking about an intention that remained unfulfilled.

There are many times that he preached in different parts of the world, especially, as I said, Asia and Europe, and he saw it as virgin territory. He knew that Rome had already received the gospel, and he did not want to build on other people's foundation. And therefore, for a while, he continued laboring elsewhere.

He puts it that way in the penultimate chapter of the book of Romans, so Romans chapter 15. This is the way he puts it there, Romans 15. I begin reading from verse 18. He says, "For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ, and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation.

But as it is written, those who've never been told of him will see, and those who've never heard will understand." Verse 22, "For this reason," rather, "this is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. It's because I have had so many other areas where I know Christ is not known, and I want to proclaim him there." So he says in verse 23, "But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain." So that's Paul.

And he says, "As I come into Rome, I sense this obligation to preach to all and sundry." Greeks, verse 14, back to chapter 1, and barbarians, wise and foolish, "I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome." That brings us to the text. What is it about this gospel that makes Paul to want to go into the seat of political power and declare it?

What is it? Well, essentially, it is something that all of us in here who are preachers should be able to attest to. We should, as individuals, sense the throbbing of the apostle Paul's heart as he speaks or writes down, pens down, Romans chapter 1, verse 16 and 17. As you are sitting there, you should be able to say, "Yes, yes, that's me!" And may God help all of us to have that testimony in our hearts.

And number one, it is the fact that the gospel is the power of God to serve. Look at the way he puts it here. He says, "For I'm not ashamed of the gospel," and by that, all he means is, "I'm proud of the gospel." This is the one message that I boast about compared to anything else in this life.

I glory in the gospel. And the reason he gives is that it is the power of God for salvation. In other words, think about it for a moment, if I can borrow your imagination, that the God who has made this entire earth with all its complexity and enabled it to hang on nothing, the God who has made the various planets that revolve around the sun in uniformity and beauty and symmetry so that none of these planets hits against the other with all the moons that might be going around the planets that have those moons, the God who has made this solar system to be part of other solar systems to form this glorious galaxy that we refer to as the Milky Way, the God who has made this galaxy to be but a dot on the canvas of the universe because there are so many other galaxies, the God who is above all of that creation, the power that holds all that together.

It is his power to give life to a dead soul through this gospel. Wow. If you had that message in your hands, with that amount of power, would you not boast about it? Would you not glory in it? That's what Paul is saying. And he's not just saying it here.

If we go to 1 Corinthians 1, that's basically what he talks about even there when the Corinthians were fighting with each other over who among the leaders that had preached in Corinth was the greatest. The Apostle Paul is saying, "You guys have gone mad." Because human beings cannot give life to the dead.

You are fighting over nothings. The one who matters above all and is the only one who matters is God because of his power. Look at the way he puts it in verse 18 of 1 Corinthians chapter 1. "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, there it is.

It is the power of God." This word of the cross, the logos, the logic of Calvary that we proclaim. It's good news. It is the very power of this infinite God. He then challenges those that have tried to be saviors of the world. He says, "For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.'" Where is the one who is wise?

Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? The point he's making there is that generally speaking within Roman culture and Greek culture, the orators with their philosophies of utopia were what the people gloried in. And he is saying, "Bring them out. Let us see what they have achieved." That's what he means by, "Where are they?" He's not looking for them in the hedges and bushes.

He's saying, "Let them bring their achievement. Let them bring it." Because at the end of the day, whatever philosophies they came up with has proven to be utter failure because of God's design. "For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach," this same gospel, "to save those who believe." Jews are demanding signs.

Greeks are seeking wisdom. But we preach Christ crucifying. A stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, yes. But listen to this. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, there it is, the power of God. Christ, the wisdom of God. "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." You see, one reason why Paul could say this is because he once experienced this power.

He was a proud and arrogant man. He was full of self-righteousness. He had a zeal for God as he knew God that made him persecute the people of the way, Christians essentially. He chased after them from Jerusalem, heading out to Damascus. As far as he was concerned, he had this driving passion to bring this sect to nothing.

And then Jesus Christ made him. That arrogant, proud individual was brought to his knees. His world, his ambition came crashing down, broken into small pieces at his feet when Jesus said to him, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." And from there, all that he had known of the Old Testament, God, by His Spirit, opened his eyes.

He began to see that this Jesus was in actual fact the fulfillment of all the promises that were there that he was seeking to live by. And that in fact, he needed to throw away any effort at self-righteousness to the point where Paul called it "dung," "refuse," so that he can only embrace Christ and Christ alone.

Jesus, at that point, destroyed that arrogance and turned him into an individual who was loving, loving God and loving the people of God, an individual who only wanted to live for God alone. What brought about that transformation? The power of God. And hence, he wanted others to experience that power.

Brethren, you are here and you call yourself a preacher. Let me ask, have you experienced God's converting power? Can you say in the words of one of the songs that at least we sing back home? Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day. Day I will never forget. After I had wandered in darkness away, Jesus, my Savior, I met.

Oh, what a tender, compassionate friend. He made the need of my heart. Shadows dispelling, with joy I am telling, he made all the darkness depart. Heaven came down and glory, glory filled my soul. When at the cross, the Savior made me whole. My sins he washed away. My night he turned to day.

Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Has Jesus done that to you? Has he? Because brethren, you cannot give what you haven't received. You can't. If all you have is cerebral information, that has not given life to the dead, put light where there was darkness, broken the chains of the slave and made you free.

I'm not surprised that you are ashamed of the gospel. I'm not. But if that power has transformed you, how can you be ashamed of the gospel? How? Paul is saying in our text that I'm not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

To everyone who believes. And he says to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In other words, it doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter. This power of God serves indiscriminately. That's why earlier he's speaking about Greeks and Barbarians, wise and foolish. He's saying it doesn't matter.

It might be the self-righteous who've been in the Christian circles since birth, and therefore they have been building a tower of self-righteousness, hoping one day they can somehow reach God. That gospel sweeps all that away and brings them embracing Christ and Christ alone. It may be someone on the opposite extreme who has literally lived their lives in the gutters of life, in sexual immorality and drunkenness and drug addiction.

That same power is able to clean them up and enable them to be proclaimers of this same message. Now, why is that so? Why is this gospel the means by which a righteous God, a thrice holy God, a God who by very nature hates sin absolutely and must inevitably punish sin, why should He instead act in terms of His power, instead of that power destroying, that power lifting us out of that storm of sin and death?

Why? Well, the apostle Paul answers that question in verse 17, and his answer is this. "For in it," which is in the gospel, "the righteousness of God is revealed from faith "for faith, as it is written, "the righteous shall live by faith." The point he's making is this, that in this message of salvation, the gospel, there is a gift that God gives us as human beings, a gift that is completely free, a gift that is given by grace, and it is that of a righteousness that can enable us to stand before God now and even more so to stand before God when His wrath is poured out against sinners on the final judgment day.

And it is His own righteousness, the righteousness of God, the righteousness of God's own Son. And that's where the difference comes in, because instead of this God dealing with us as our sins deserve, this God deals with us according to a righteousness that was procured by another and is now put to our account.

Let me put it this way. The Christian faith is not just about forgiveness. Now, it is about forgiveness. That's important. It is about righteousness being credited to our account. So we are not simply individuals who were in the red, in the negative, and God brings us to zero and then says, "Now, I'm warning you.

Just make sure you don't go back into that red. Just make sure." No, He does much more than that. Through the death of His Son, He brings us from that negative to the zero. But through the righteousness of His Son, He takes us from that zero into the positive, the glorious positive, the positive of God Himself, the righteousness of God.

Wow. What a gift. And that's what Paul speaks about here and elsewhere in this epistle. He says, "For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith." Now, most of you will know the story of Martin Luther, that at first when he would read this account and also Romans 3, referring to the righteousness of God, he was thinking in terms of the justice of God.

And inevitably, therefore, he was running away from God because he was seeing this God who in His justice wants to punish him. Until one day, the coin clicked. And he realized that this is God's righteousness given freely to those who come to God in faith. It completely changed Martin Luther.

He puts it this way in chapter 3, and I'll begin from verse 23. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." So all, there's no exception. Doesn't matter how religious you may have been, we have all failed the test. We all deserve to go to hell.

But we are justified by His grace as a gift. Now, there's a lot of tautology there because once you say by His grace, grace is always a gift. But Paul wants to really drum this matter home that we may realize that it's free, it's free, it's free! By adding "as a gift." And then he puts it this, "Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," I'll come to that in a moment, "whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith." This was to show God's righteousness.

In other words, this God who does not overlook sin, but deals with it in the person of His Son. Brethren, let me quickly rush there because that's where it matters the most. We were singing earlier, "When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and I pour contempt on all my pride." Why?

Because when I gaze at that cross and I hear the cry of the great good man, Jesus Christ, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And I realize that He who was the uncreated one, the second person of the Trinity, God Himself, who at the click of His finger can reproduce the whole of humanity, that He descended from that throne, the rainbow-sacred throne, was just like a wild animal on planet Earth, and willingly, willingly took my place, suffered my punishment, that God the Father should have poured upon His own Son His wrath to its very dregs, that my Savior hung there because He loved me.

He loved me. Everything about me would have been disgusting to Him, but He loved me. How can I even bring in an iota of pride? All I can do is to say, "Thank you. Thank you." As I hear that cry of dereliction, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

I know that the answer is love, infinite love that displays who I am, the God of mercy, the God of love, the God of grace, the God who is good. Let me say it again. How can you be ashamed of that message? How? How? You will want the world to know about the lover of your soul who has loved you with everlasting love.

You will want to tell the universe about it, as Paul himself would when he speaks about the fact that the Old Testament spoke about this when he says, "For it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" The point he's making there is that this is a gift we only receive.

That's all. We don't add anything to it. We just receive it. In fact, the phrase there which translators have really struggled with when he says, "The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith," the point there is it is an alloyed faith. It's a faith without mixture of works.

It's all free that you simply receive. Surely, that should humble us. It's only the worst of the worst of sinners who would want to bring in pride in that text. It's like a proud, proud father who in the midst of a war-torn situation where they have no access to work and therefore they cannot bring any food home hears about the fact that perhaps the United Nations or some relief organization has flown in and they've brought in bags of rice or potatoes or whatever else might be food and then as it is brought in the father goes there with a bucket and an hour later arrives home strutting like a peacock and the little child says, "Dad, you seem to be very proud.

What is it?" And he says, "Look at what I've brought. Am I not a great dad?" "Well, dad, how did you get this?" That's quite humbling, but he has to try and show that he did something. And he says, "Well, I held out this empty bucket and here is the rice.

Am I not a great dad?" Come on. At the most you are a begging dad. The one who gave is the one we should praise. Friends, you cannot boast about faith because faith is simply you reaching out as a beggar that he might give you his gift. And that's what he has done for us.

Let me hurry on to close, therefore. Here is a perfect sacrifice with a perfect gift from a perfect God that is given to us. Surely, brethren, we of all people should want to proclaim this gospel to all. We should feel moved to go to lands where Christ is not known and be willing to pay with our very lives that men and women might come to know our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, this great God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

That we may say to them, "This is not about trying. It's about trusting." God has done it all in the person of his Son. We should say to them, "There is a full and free righteousness for you. Come just as you are and experience this full and free salvation in the person of God's own Son.

You don't need to go back and try and clean up anything. No, no, no, no. As you are right now. For that's the way I came. I came as a beggar and he poured upon me grace upon grace upon grace. He can do the same for you. Come just as you are." Oh brethren, I pray that those of us here who are preachers can once again have the gospel of God burn in our souls to the point where that's what we want to do in the midst of so many other responsibilities of pastoring and so on.

All that we may say, "Please get these things away. Let others do it, but give me the pulpit." I want to preach the glorious message of this great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, as the great hymn writer Charles Wesley put it, "His only righteousness I show. His saving faith proclaim.

His saving truth proclaim. It is all my business here below to cry, 'Behold the Lamb.' Oh, that in my latest breath I might but gasp His name and cry to all in that final breath, 'Behold, behold the Lamb.'" Let's pray. Great God of heaven, thank you for this message, the message of the cross.

Thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for Christ Himself. Lord, thank you that you've called us. Thank you, Lord, that you've called us to be proclaimers of this message. Lord, who are we? Thank you that you should bestow such an honor that we should be ambassadors for King Jesus.

Lord, thank you. Amen. Pastor Conrad, that's very hard to say anything after that. Thank you for the beauty. It reminds me of the hymn that you quoted earlier. "Oh, what a wonderful day it has been for us." Thank you, Pastor. Thank you. Well, I want you to take a moment just to let this settle in, everything that's taken place today, the messages we've just heard.

But as you're starting to think about what's next tonight, if you would do just a housekeeping favor for us, and that is if you would make sure to take all of your belongings with you tonight. I have a few things to say, but take your belongings with you. If you could, please clean up the trash around you.

That would be so helpful for us. We have a TMS alumni who have RSVP'd, are going to have a special reception this evening on the second floor of the Tower Building, which is the building with the stairs on the outside. Tomorrow's first session begins at 9 a.m. with H.B.

Charles, Jr. For those who are interested also that want to set up a Fundamentals of Security meeting, we're going to have it with our security team for your local church. You can attend tomorrow morning's security seminar in the third floor of the Tower Building, room T370 at 7 a.m.

Just remember, the night is not over, so please fellowship, enjoy one another's company, but also remember, if you parked in the south parking lot, your vehicle needs to be out by 9 p.m., all right? Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority before all time and now and forever.

Amen. ¶¶ ¶¶ you