Revering the Word
Romans 1 What is the Gospel and why is it needed?
Good morning, everyone. This morning we begin a journey through the Book of Romans. It is part of what we're doing here at Revering the Word. We are 279 days into our journey of going through the entire Bible on teaching a chapter a day on the Word of God and in three years we'll do the whole thing and at ReveringtheWord.com, that website, you can find the plan that we're going through the schedule and that we're going through and we encourage you to take in the whole journey. Perhaps you found us now in Romans, and what a great place to find us. This is such an important theological book and understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I hope you take in the whole book of Romans with us. It'll take about a month at a chapter a day. So the Book of Romans, how did we get to where we are here? Well, a guy by the name of Saul was a Jew, and he was very zealous for Judaism and he was alive during the time of Jesus' ministry, but he was not present during Jesus' ministry, and after Jesus died and rose again, the Christian church began and Christianity, Jesus being a Jew, is based on the foundation of Judaism and of the Old Testament and Christianity is supposed to be the fulfillment of the Jewish faith. However, then and even today for some, however many Jews have come to Christianity, many Jews resisted Christianity and missed that Jesus is their Messiah, that he came as a suffering servant to die for the sins of mankind. Well, the Apostle Paul was a Jew who when he saw people converting to Christianity and leaving the synagogue, he didn't like that because he was zealous for Judaism, and he even sought to get permission and did receive permission, got a letter of authority to persecute Christians and even to arrest Christians. He was vehemently opposed to Christianity. Paul was a steadfast Jew, a Pharisee, which meant he was a religious law abiding Jew, and he was very zealous for following the Jewish law. And in his persecution of Christians in the newly formed Christian church, the Apostle Paul one day was along a road walking to Damascus seeking to persecute and arrest more Christians, and he heard a voice from heaven, and it said, "Sall, Sall, why are you persecuting me?" And I believe, and if you read in the book of Acts, this account of this story, that Paul's like literally throat dropped at that moment, because it's as though he knew Jesus was talking to him, and he said, "Who are you, Lord?" He like had the question like, "Who's speaking to me?" And it was the Lord Jesus who was speaking to him, and here he was persecuting Jesus's church. So he was awestruck. He fell to the ground. He lost his sight. He was blinded for a period of three days. He was led by the hand to a city in a Christian named Ananias, prayed over him that Saul would receive his sight, and Saul received his sight back. Imagine being blind for three days, and then receiving your sight back. Just after you saw a light and heard this voice of Jesus talking to him. Well, he knew then he was wrong for persecuting Christians, and he knew that Christianity was the way, and Paul became one of the leading missionaries of all time, traveling all of, you know, Turkey and Greece and Jerusalem, Israel, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. He went on three missionary journeys, and you know, was a just an enormous person for Christianity, and many of the New Testament books were written by him. And indeed, this is one of them, the Book of Romans. Now, many of the letters that this transformed person wrote, he had visited cities, and churches had been planted, and then he would follow up with letters, and many of them had an occasion, meaning there was a purpose to his letter. Besides teaching in the letter, he had heard about something that was taking place in the city, and then wanted to write to address that specific issue, or problem they were having. This letter's a little different. The Apostle Paul ended up going to Rome, but at this point he had never been to Rome and wanted to go there, and although he had some acquaintances and relationships of people from Rome, he didn't really write for a specific occasion, but instead wrote a treatise, a very thorough account of really what it means to be the gospel of Jesus Christ. What is the fullness of understanding of that? Because normally in the cities that he traveled to, he was able to preach, and do it in person, but because he had never been here, he wanted to write it out thoroughly, and what a blessing that we have that. We have this thorough account. It's one of the most important letters of the New Testament, and I'm very grateful for it, and really the message is good news. Did you know that the gospel means good news? And it is, but what makes good news all the more greater is when we know the bad news. So this letter begins, not at the very onset, but in this chapter, we see the bad news, and in summary, the bad news is that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us, none of us have lived a perfect life, including this pastor. We've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and what the teaching is, is that as a result of that, we'd be under the penalty of God. We'd be under the wrath of God. We'd be, we wouldn't have peace with God. We would be separated from God, and it's a very important understanding to have. It's a very important understanding to know that we need a solution to our sin problem, and that God and his great love solved our sin problem by sending Jesus Christ as his son to die in a cross, and then rise victorious from the grave alive again. And when he died for us, he took our sin, and the good news is that because of faith in him, we can be forgiven of our sin and restored to a right relationship with God, and that message is for all of us, whether Jew or whether Gentile, like us. Gentile would mean anyone who is not formerly a Jew, and we can all be saved. But it's important that we know we need to be saved, because if we think that we're okay on our own, that I'm a good person, or that somehow my goodness is going to get me to heaven, or I'm better than most, or you know, God in his love just loves all of us, so it doesn't really matter what I do, think, say, believe, because we're all pretty good, and in the end God's going to let us go to heaven, because we're good. Well, that's not what the Bible teaches. Those are incorrect thinking. Those are essentially lies that many people believe. We're really in the message of the Bible is that we're sinners, all of us, that our sin separates us from God. That's the bad news. The good news is that God solved that problem through Jesus Christ, but he's the only solution, Jesus. The only way to be forgiven is through faith in him. He became the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So, what this chapter is seeking to do is to teach us that we need a solution to our sin problem, and that... So, here we go. Let's take it in. This amazing letter... Paul, this guy who was transformed. Now, his name was Saul, and by the way, his name was changed to Paul, and he now is going to write this letter. Paul, a bond-servant of Christ, a slave of Jesus Christ. He considered himself someone who wanted to serve Christ as an apostle, called it as an apostle, and on apostle is an authoritative one, one who is sent by God, and typically you think of the twelve apostles, and that is true, because they had special proximity to Jesus. But Paul was considered an apostle because of this event on the road to Damascus, and also he got a revelation from Jesus later in his life, where he was caught up into a spiritual experience with Jesus and got direction from him, and as a result of these two different things, Paul is considered an apostle, so he has authority to write Scripture, which is what we have here, and he's set apart for the gospel of God. That's the good news, and really, that's what this entire book is about, is relaying us what the gospel is, what the good news is, and he's saying here, in verse two, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures. What that's saying is that the Old Testament, although the Jews didn't originally recognize this, it pointed to Jesus, the prophets of the Old Testament, the holy scriptures, told about Jesus coming and dying as a suffering servant, and indeed he came. So whether you're Jew or Gentile, even if you're Jew and you go by the Old Testament, if you look, you'll see so much was said about Jesus who came later, and he was born a descendant of David, and that was said to happen that Jesus would be born from the family in line of David, and indeed Jesus was, and in fact, he was born, that's why he was born in Bethlehem, because David was from Bethlehem, that was David's hometown, and Jesus is from that family line, but even God ordained that he would be born in that city, even though you might recall he wasn't even in this city at the time, he was in Nazareth, but he had to go to Bethlehem for a census, that is Joseph and Mary, and the time came for her to give birth while they were in Bethlehem, just to tie all this together. God did that because Jesus is the descendant of David, and that's according to the flesh, meaning in this particular case, that means, you know, Jesus comes from that fleshly line, that physical line of David, but he's been declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, and, you know, man, may we not gloss over that, Jesus Christ died, and Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and his apostle saw him alive again, and in fact, he was revealed to more than 500 people that Jesus was alive again, and Paul saw him in this special, glorious resurrected form here when Paul was on the road to Damascus, and that's one of the great evidences of the Bible, is that Jesus rose from the dead, and his apostles died maintaining that testimony about the resurrected Jesus. It says, according to the spirit of holiness, did you know that God's desiring that we would be holy? He's desiring through the power of his spirit, that it's working us, that we would live holy lives, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, listen to what it says here. This is very important a couple of verses through whom we have received grace. The grace of God is God's power, his gifts, his mercy, his forgiveness, through whom we've received grace and apostleship, because Paul's received this grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for his name's sake. Now, I want to pause there because that's a very important statement. The reason that Paul has been given this ministry and his objective and what he's called to do is to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles. Now, that says an awful lot, and I want to make sure we get it. First of all, Paul wants us to believe, I want us to believe, Jesus wants us to believe. It all begins there. It all begins with believing in Jesus Christ that he rose from the dead and who he is as our Lord and as our Savior. But it doesn't end there, because after we believe, the objective is that we would be obedient to the faith, that God gave us guidance, instructions that God has the best way for us to live, and it's recorded in both the Old and New Testaments, but now we live in the New Testament understanding of the Bible. We live under the light of that New Testament, and once we come to faith, then God's desiring that we would live obediently to that faith. And then it says among all the Gentiles. Now, that can be translated also all the nations, and that's going to be spelled out in this letter. It's very important. You know, back in the Old Testament days, God had a family. It began with Abraham, Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob. Jacob's name got changed from Jacob to Israel, and that became Israel and the Israel lights, and that was God's special family. But today, Paul is trying to bring about obedience to faith among all the Gentiles, among all the nations, meaning anyone now can be part of the family of God. You don't have to be a former Jew to be part of the family of God. Any bond who comes to faith in Jesus can be part of God's family, and that's what it's saying here, and that may not sound revolutionary to us today, but it was then because the Jews saw themselves as set apart. But now, anyone who believes in Jesus is set apart and part of the family of God, whom you also are called of Jesus Christ. We've been called into the family of God through faith. Now, I want to share with you that that is the purpose statement of Romans. If we briefly were to go to the very end of the book, which there's 16 chapters here in Romans, and we go to the last two verses, listen to what it says, but now is manifested by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the eternal God has been made known to all the nations. There's that again, all the Gentiles are all the nations. And what's the purpose leading to obedience of faith, to the only wise God through Jesus Christ be the glory forever and ever. And these two statements are bookends. He begins in verse chapter one, verse six, saying, I'm trying to bring all our obedience to faith. And now he's saying, this has been made known to the nations leading to the obedience of faith. And really, that's what God is after. Are you through faith in Jesus seeking to live obediently to him? He would desire that in honor of who he is. May we become better followers of Jesus, obedient to the one who died for us. And then it says in verse seven, to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called his saints. He's writing to a church that existed in Rome. Now, how did they get there? Because Christianity started in Jerusalem. And 50 days after the death and resurrection of Jesus on Passover, there was a Jewish holiday called Pentecost. And that's when the Holy Spirit came upon those who believed in Jerusalem on a special Jewish holiday. And on that day, people were in Jerusalem from all over the world, celebrating Judaism, but they began, the church was birthed, and the Holy Spirit came upon those who believed. And many were there from all over the world, and they went home then and took Christianity with them. And we believe that's how a church began in Rome. But although a church began there, they didn't have, you know, everything they really needed in Rome, meaning they didn't even have a New Testament Bible yard that didn't exist yet. So this letter was a significant letter being sent to Rome so that they could thoroughly understand what Jesus did for them. So let's take it in. Verse eight, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith, those of you in Rome, is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. And Rome was a special place and a center of the world, so to speak. And what would happen in Rome would be made known and indeed their faith is becoming known for God whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel. That's what Paul's doing. He's proclaiming the gospel, the good news of his son is my witness as to how I unceasingly, I make mention of you always in my prayers, making requests, if perhaps now, at last by the will of God, I may succeed in coming to you. Now, Paul is not going to them right now. He is towards the end of his third missionary journey. He's writing this letter to Rome, but actually in the months to come, he's going to get arrested in Jerusalem and eventually sail as a prisoner to Rome. So he does hope to make it to Rome and indeed he does make it there. But right now he tells them he prays for them and the Apostle Paul did a great job of that. You know, he had a passion to plant churches all throughout the world. And he was hopeful and prayerful that this church would flourish in Rome. And he's doing his best to help that both through prayer, but also through the sending of this letter, verse 11, "For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you." And he knows if he can get there and even in this letter is going to help them in their faith. But I think in wanting to be humble, he says that the following that you may be established, he's hoping to help them get established, get a strong foundation. But then he says, that is that I may be encouraged together with you while I'm among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine. You know, although Paul is a leader and an apostle and a brilliant man, he's also wanting to be humble. Hey, you know what? When I get there, eventually I can encourage you, but you can also encourage me. And then he says this in verse 13, "I do not want you to be unaware, brother, and that I often have planned to come to you and have been prevented so far, so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles." And Paul would follow the Holy Spirit and he hadn't been led there yet, but he is going to be led there. And he is looking forward to bearing fruit among the Gentiles there, as he has in other parts of the world. Paul considered him an apostle to the Gentiles. He led many Jews to faith, but he also was known for bringing the gospel, the good news of Jesus, to all the nations. And that's what he says here, "I am under obligation, both to Greeks, which would be a non Jew and to barbarians." Those would be, you know, kind of like a negative word, really to anyone who doesn't even follow God or maybe follows false gods. And he's saying, "I'm under obligation to all of them, both to the wise and to the foolish." Paul wanted to reach anyone and anyone for the glory of God. So for my part, I'm eager to preach the gospel to you who also are in Rome. He's eager to do this, to proclaim the good news. And then he says this powerful verse, it's a memorable one, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the good news. I'm not ashamed of Jesus. I'm not ashamed to proclaim that we need Jesus as our Lord from Savior. For it is the power of God, for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greeks." And as I've mentioned already, that was revolutionary, that this Jesus came to die for anyone. It's the power of salvation. It's how we get saved. Anyone can get saved through faith in Jesus. For in it, the gospel, the good news, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith." And did you know that in order to get to heaven one day, you need to be righteous. You need to be right before God and that God can make you right before him. Did you know in this, listen, I'm wrong without Jesus. All of us are wrong. It says, the Bible says, "All have sinned and fought short of the glory of God." And as a result of that, we wouldn't be righteous. We wouldn't be made right for heaven. Sin can't go with us to heaven. We need to be made right in order to go to heaven. And the way that we're made right is not that we're perfect, but that we're perfectly forgiven. And Jesus Christ down on that cross to take the sin that separated us from God, that was preventing our peace from with God. And God put that sin of us on his Son in order to cleanse us from our sin and make us right so that one day we can be prepared to be with God in heaven. And that's how we're made right through faith in Jesus Christ. Now, I mentioned to you earlier that this letter, in fact, this chapter is intended to show us the bad news so that it will make the good news all that much greater. And now we hear the bad news. For the wrath of God, verse 18, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. This is the reality that many don't know, and it's really important to understand, is that our sin separates us from God. And without a solution to our sin problem, we would experience the wrath of God. There is a wrath of God for those who don't believe in him, because we're sinners. And in that sin, there's a penalty to sin. Jesus took it, but we have to believe upon him as our Lord and Savior, and then seek to live obediently to the faith in order for Jesus to take our sin. We have to believe in him through faith. And if we don't, our sin separates us from God, and we would be under the penalty of our sin, we would be under the wrath of God because we haven't received it. He sent someone to die for us, for you. And if we reject that, we're rejecting God. And as a result of that, we would still experience the wrath that is to us because of our sin. And what he's saying is everyone should, at this point, have an opportunity to turn to God. I hear I am in Wisconsin and the United States of America. There's a Bible available on your phone, on the internet. You can listen to this podcast in about a million other ones teaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is an opportunity to know Jesus today. And the only reason people don't know him is because they're not wanting to. They're not wanting to seek him to find him. And if you just put seek him and find him and look for him, you'll find him and you can receive this good news. And that's what God is saying is that because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. And what Paul is saying is that, you know, you can even just look at creation. How did a human eye come into existence? How did the human ear get made? You know, when you see something that is intricately designed, it didn't happen on accident. Someone had to design it. And when you see the human, when you see all the animals of the world, all the plants, when you see the creation of this world, when you see the distance of the sun from the earth and how we even have earth today, there's a designer. And when you see design, you know there's a designer and God is saying, Paul is saying here in this letter that God has made himself known. You can see it through creation. But unfortunately, for even though they knew God and they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculation and their foolish heart was darkened. And people are darkened today and many people aren't really seeking. They maybe they want to live the way they want to live. They don't want to be told what not to do. They have a sin they're living in and they kind of know what's wrong, but they don't want to be told it's wrong. So what they do is they ignore God. They hide from God. They turn away from God. They they actually don't really want to be true because then they'd have to change. But really, you should want God to be true and you should seek to him because he's your solution. He's your forgiveness and he's actually the way of life. But professing to be wise, they became fools. And you know, I want to make sure I come across humbly, but this is one of the greatest problems of those who don't believe is they think they know enough to reject Jesus. They actually think they're smart in you know, in not believing in the Bible and not believing in Jesus that somehow they're smart and humbly I say to you, learn the evidence as to the reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how he fulfilled the Old Testament scriptures that were written thousands of years earlier and then have come true in Jesus, learn the evidence to believe instead of thinking someone is smart and unbelieving because once you seek, you will see there is really legitimate, good, rational, logical, scientific reasons to believe in Jesus. And once you do that, you'll actually see it's wise to believe and then it's foolish to not believe. But many in the world today profess to be wise, but really they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image and the form of corrupt a little man and of birds and a four foot of animals and crawling creatures. And I mean, this happens even today, but all throughout history, man has made up gods. They've made Zeus and they've made Hermes and they've made sun gods and moon gods and worshiped golden calves and made idols, things that to them they make as gods and God's saying those aren't even real. Those are all fake. The one true God has been revealed through Jesus Christ and you need to follow him. But when you refuse God and when you choose not to follow, believe and obey him and his Bible, then what happens is is you'll be caught up into false beliefs and you'll be caught up into sin. And that's what's going to say here. Therefore, verse 24, as a result of not willing to acknowledge God, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And that's what sadly, with compassion, that's what happens today is, instead of seeking to know the truth about God and the Bible, they have exchanged that truth for their own thinking, their own beliefs. And they've embraced lies of I'm going to believe what I believe versus believing what God has revealed through his Bible. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen, we need to worship creator God. Now, if if someone's unwilling to do that, if they're unwilling to seek God and find God, this is what will happen. For this reason, God gave them over to a degrading passions. Now listen to this. For their women exchanged the natural function, their women exchanged what's natural for that, which is unnatural. And then what is he talking about? You'll see in a moment. And in the same way also, men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their heir. And Paul in this first chapter is bringing up homosexuality as an example of people following their own degrading passions. He says the natural function is for women to be with men. That's what's natural. And for men to be with women, and it's very obvious if you just but see it, I mean, you know, a man has a penis, a woman has a vagina. And by the way, God created them and put them naked in the garden and said, I want you to be fruitful and multiply. And it didn't take them long to figure that out, you know, God made men for women and men, women for men, and our parts fit together in order to be fruitful and multiply. That's the way that God designed it. God did not design penises for butts. That's not how God designed it. And people are exchanging the truth of God for a lie when you aren't willing to worship God and the Bible, you will insert your own lusts, your own thoughts, your own, you'll be surrendered to the lust of this world. And if anyone doesn't know that homosexuality is a sin, they're just not looking at what the Bible says. Listen, it's crystal clear from cover to cover. Homosexuality is not of God. It's a sin. And it's a sin like other sin, but we definitely shouldn't celebrate it. And that's going to be talked about in this book. But if anyone has ever lied to you and tried to tell you that men are created gay or women are created gay, it's a lie. It's unbiblical. It's not of God. And we clearly see that here and in many other areas of the Bible. And listen, and just as they verse 28, and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper, including homosexuality. But there are lots of ways to sin. Listen, it's going to be talked about here. Remember, what is this chapter about? This chapter is about the bad news that mankind falls under sin and they need a solution to the sin of the good news is that we're going to find out you can be forgiven of all of this, including homosexuality. You can be forgiven of any sin that's ever been done. And God willingly desires to forgive you by placing all of that on his son. He allowed his son to take our sin. But right now he's trying to convince us of the bad news that we're all under sin and we need a solution that's Jesus. This letter, Romans, is good news and we're going to see it. But we need to embrace the bad news first. God gave them over. Listen, just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper. Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed. Have you ever been greedy? Have you ever been evil, full of envy? Have you ever been envious? Have you ever murdered? And you know, even to be angry with your brother, Jesus called murder, strife. If you've ever been involved in strife, I have deceit, malice, gossip. Have you ever gossiped about anybody? Have you ever slandered anyone, slanderers, haters of God? Have you ever turned against God? Have you ever been insolent or arrogant in your life? Have you ever been boastful, inventors of evil? Have you ever been disobedient to parents? I hope you see yourself on this list. I do listen, I'm a sinner. I've fallen short of the glory of God. I need a solution. Have you ever been without understanding? Have you ever been untrustworthy, unloving? Oh Lord, help us. Unmerciful. We all are on this list. And soon we're going to see that God gave us a solution. And listen to what it says in verse 32. "And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, did you know that we're going to be separated from God forever because of our sin? But God, in his great love, in his great mercy, while we are still sinners, sent Jesus Christ to die for us." Hallelujah. But listen to this. This ends with the bad news. "And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." Oh, how is that proven true today? Today, we are taking things that God says are improper, and we are promoting them. You know, this happens to be June of 2024 that I'm giving this message in in America. They call this pride month, meaning we celebrate homosexuality. We put flags about it. We promoted it as proper. And forget about just that one. Promoting anything that God says is sinful as proper, that's what people are doing today. They're giving hearty approval to those who practice sin. And you know what that does is it leads more people into it. You know, when we tell children today that you're created that way, that's the way God created you. We're leading people away from God and into sin. We're promoting something and not just homosexuality, whether it be drunkenness, whether it be lust, pornography, promoting any kind of sexual sin. Sex was made for husbands and wives. It's not made to just glutton around this world. And anytime we're promoting something that's not of God, it's not something God desires. We can't give hearty approval to those who want to live in sin. But I want to share with you that this is the end of chapter one, but it's not the end of the story. The good news is that no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done, and I praise God, I live 26 years of my life apart from Jesus Christ. And then I came to know Him and became born again to Him. I placed my faith in Him. And Hallelujah, He forgave me. And He gave me a new life. I believe in Him. And now I'm continuing to learn to live obediently to the faith. And it's been the best life ever. I'm so grateful for what Jesus Christ has done for me. Embrace the bad news. You're a sinner. I'm a sinner. Our sin separates us from God. Continue with us in this journey in the book of Romans and in the Bible to learn the good news that you can be saved of all of your sin and promised eternal life. Would you tell someone else about this journey? Not only revering the word website, but through this book of Romans, oh, I pray that you'd see this book through to the end. I trust it will help you to know our Lord and see the good news of forgiveness of sins through Jesus. God bless you all.