Well, I invite you to turn tonight to the book of Romans as we're continuing in our study of Romans and we come to the two very crucial verses in chapter 1 that summarize that the righteous shall live by faith. So we'll be looking at verses 16 and 17, page 1016 in your Bibles of Romans chapter 1. Let's give our attention to the Holy Word of the Lord. Two verses tonight, beginning at verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith may the lord bless the hearing of his word tonight well gospel ministry has always been a challenge it has always been a challenge from the very beginning often probably not for the reasons that we think about but this is something that is highlighted here at the beginning of Romans. And the main challenge, really, that comes to preaching the gospel and ministering the gospel is the simple problem that pragmatism is one of our great challenges, you might say, especially in America, to ministering the Christian gospel. Pragmatism has always been a problem. You realize what pragmatism is. It is an approach to ministry that judges the truth by the success, looking at the success of it, how it's received as the marker by which something is true or right. We have experienced much blessing from the Lord here at the Escondido URC. It has been overwhelming at times to see how the Lord has been so merciful to us and kind and compassionate to us and continues to advance the ministry. I'm thankful for this church. I'm thankful for all the many families, the encouragements from this body. But how would you feel for a minute if the gospel ministry that you are receiving was actually having in this place frustrating results? What if people were leaving? What if people said, I really don't like the message? What if people said, this is just too much emphasis on sin and how strong it is being ministered that calls people to repentance and and faith what if the church was actually emptying over the message itself what if your children were not responding and what if they were all saying well you know the music over here and the programs are so much better but this is just too requiring or you might put it like jesus did in the sermon on the mount as we've been looking at this sermon's probing us too closely in our hearts and we're not comfortable with that we were have been blessed to see hearts open to the truth of the gospel but what if that were not the case what would you begin to think and how would you begin how would you respond to that you may not be as nice to me you would immediately think in your minds something's wrong or there has to be something we can do to stop that kind of response this has always been a perennial problem in the church you can think of isaiah's ministry when he said send me and the word came back to isaiah and remember what isaiah was to be he was to be a heralder of the gospel if isaiah said send me and the lord said go seeing they will not see hearing they will not hear what if that were the decision for the ministry we forget ministry cuts two ways truth cuts two ways ministry also can harden and soften here's why i raise this issue paul faced this all the time jesus gave many statements fulfilling isaiah the heart of this people has grown dull and he said at one point paul said in light of all these pressures due to pragmatism He said, we have made a conscious choice in our ministry not to peddle the word of God. We are not, as so many, using the word in underhanded ways. But we have renounced disgraceful and underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. but by open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of god you hear the you hear the burden in that you hear the pressure in that of the ministry to look at the results and to judge it that way pragmatism is a huge problem and the relentless confidence that paul had in the ministry is remarkable so that at one point i want you to think of this man at the end of his life of how he described Now, this is the great Apostle Paul. It's a sad picture at one point toward the end of his life. He writes at the end of 2 Timothy, Do your best to come quickly. For Demas, because he has loved the world, has deserted me. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas and my scrolls, especially the parchments, summarized so far. His great co-worker in the ministry abandoned him for loving the world. He doesn't even have a coat to put on. He has no books to read. And then he writes this. Alexander the coppersmith did me a great deal of harm. May the Lord repay him for what he's done. You too should be on guard against him because he strongly opposed our message. At my first defense, no one came to my support. Who is this? Everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. That is a hard road. That is a hard road in ministry to tow. And you think about the challenges then of what people were saying. If this were the ministry, and this is what they said of Paul, they were saying all the super apostles of paul number one look at him he's weak number two look at the success he seems to have very little of it and all the time in the guy's ministry there is opposition there is conflict people are leaving people are complaining and he's got this thorn in the flesh why if you're true would god give his servant of this kind of note a thorn in the flesh He's not legitimate. I raise all that to ask the question, what drove Paul? That's why I raise it. It's one answer. It's one answer that's right here tonight. He believed with all his heart that the gospel is God's power to save. Think about that. The gospel is God's power to save people. But there's a lot of pressure in this, especially in our environment. And we're going to look a little bit at that. But believing that, he gave his whole life to it. Believing that, he continued in it. Even in the face of all the pressures to make this look better, to make this sound better, to make this feel better, To appease people. And that's really the heart of what he's helping them with tonight. He knew when he said, at the very end of verse 15, so I'm eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome, that it's possible some were saying, really? He's not here. And they may have charged him of compromise in some way. But Paul set up from the front of this book the perspective that drove this ministry. He wanted to help this church understand the ministry and the provision that he knew and that he believed that the gospel was providing to people the most important thing that people need in this life. There's a lot of things you might say you need in this life. And Paul understood in all of the big picture, there's one thing you need above all. and it is the gospel that is what he longed to bring the romans needed help in understanding what the heart of true christianity is the heart of the christian faith with so many pressures you can just imagine of being a church in rome i could have spent a lot of time on that i tried to give some of that this was no easy place to minister this is in the heart of the empire Paul now provides the foundational statement to really flesh out now what the whole book is aiming to address at least up until chapter 11. The heart of what he wants to address, he wants them to appreciate, he wants them to understand that even though all these terrible things have happened and these things have happened that discredit him as an apostle, why he is so determined to stay the course. And I think that's a huge message for us, an important message for us. In staying the course in something that's difficult to stay the course in. So that's where we begin tonight. We begin in verse 17, setting that up, looking at his intention here, where he makes this grand statement. You know, this beautiful statement. And I've always said when we come to these really familiar statements, I think we've heard them so much that it's easy to not really sense the great wonderful truth that's being communicated here but but listen again to verse 16 hopefully to hear it afresh i am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of god for salvation to everyone who believes it's important to understand i believe up front what he means by gospel because there has been even in this so much misunderstanding of this it's not like this was misunderstood by paul paul knew the old testament well he was a great scholar of the old testament and knew exactly the message he was bringing in fulfillment gospel means of course boys and girls good news glad tidings good news this was a concept that was promised throughout the old covenant this was a a herald that would run and bring good news he'll later say in the book blessed are those to think about those who come and bring the gospel of peace the feet of those who do that the imagery is that runners are coming to you all the time god is sending out runners in the earth who are running to bring you this he's put it in their hearts that this would be the heart of their ministry to you and he took that from isaiah 50 maybe for one illustration how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings that publishes peace that brings good tidings of good that publishes salvation say that on design I'm sending you preachers to publish peace to you, good news to you. Your God reigns. The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. That good news concerns his son, he said, concerning the son. Gospel is such an important word. gospel is such an important concept for us used in the new testament sometimes in more broad ways throughout the bible to speak of god's whole work for us and justification and sanctification but but for paul there was always a matter when he spoke of gospel as something being of first importance you take um first corinthians 15 i want to remind you of the gospel i preached to you which you received and on which you have taken your stand by this gospel you are saved you hold firmly to the word i preached to you notice that we have to hold firmly to this gospel this message for what i received i passed on to you as of first importance here it is here's the gospel that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures paul says that's first importance here this is the good news that concerns of all that jesus began to do and to say for us this is why jesus came to this earth this is what christianity 101 is all about now i will address this in a moment more precisely but paul up front is saying my great goal with you is to preach this my great goal is to deliver this to you that's why i want to come to you romans to preach to you that's the end again of verse 15 i'm eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome. I want to come. I want to preach the person and the work of Jesus Christ for you, outside of you, on your behalf. I want you to know what's been done for you to save you from all your sins. But what does he begin tonight to raise that is the great challenge for this ministry? that is the great problem facing the gospel ministry that's i think the question that's important that's driving this it is this he had to say up front i'm not ashamed of this why this what why would he even raise that to begin this great epistle proper because everywhere paul was went doing this faithfully all he faced was opposition when the pagans heard the christian message they branded it as atheism they think of the pagan world at that time they heard the christian message and they said that is total atheism the jews absolutely loathed the message of the gospel because what they said is, the whole thing abolishes the law and will make you an antinomian. Everywhere the apostles were accused, bringing this message of disturbing the peace. Even more important is to think about the message itself in Roman culture. You're running around preaching that your god did what died on a cross that's the claim that you claim jesus is right you're saying he's your god you worship him who's ever believed that about their god and you claim he's all-powerful and you claim he's almighty he was subject to the filthy hands of sinners he was beaten he was pummeled he was spit in the face he was put a robe of of mockery was put on him he was crucified and he then he received the most accursed death not only of old testament law but of roman law explain that out of the gates think of the great challenge of bringing this message into the world even to explain it so that people will understand it that's not easy how many people want to sit down first and consider they have a great problem what we considered tonight you are absolutely fallen all the desires and thoughts of your hearts are corrupt and you need to be delivered they branded it as stupid and foolish the whole message Paul would say this over and over. Yeah, we know that. We know that because God chose it to be foolishness to the world. And they said, who wants a God like that? Gods are celebrated for strength. Gods are made of marble. You can still see the Roman gods carved in marble after they died. And look at them. They're chiseled. They're powerful. you see what we're up against then comes this message that takes everything away from us that says that we're totally depraved and that we do not he's about to say we do before this god nothing that's good that could merit eternal life that we are sinful to the core that we are deserving of divine judgment that whole message is absolutely despised by human nature there's a spiritual warfare surrounding this on top of all of this the warfare on top of this not only you think about our sinful nature that reacts against it but it's satan's chief assault in life it's satan's chief work to undermine and attack and assault the gospel so much so that he fills churches with second corinthians 11 all these false ministers who preach a different gospel and paul would have to come along and say if anyone comes and preaches a different gospel than the one that you've received let him be anathema let him be accursed so we see the great challenge to this when we're embarrassed about something what do we do we're ashamed of something what do we do well we try to take away the offense that's been the greatest hurt to the effectiveness of ministry i think in our times we think that the more we downplay the offense of the gospel the more we downplay it the reality is the more we corrupt it the less we are clear on it listen to this the less we are clear on it the more we muddy it up the more it's accepted the more it's received this is why the galatians turned away from it the church in galatia they They turned away from the message to something that said, what you do will please God. Your human works are enough to please God. That's what every other religion has said in the world. Or Corinth. Corinth tried to dress up the gospel. Corinth wanted show. Corinth wanted powerful speech. Corinth wanted something that would attract. I was just talking with a fellow pastor. it's really amazing what we ask you to do. We ask you to come and sit and listen to a message preached. Do you know how awkward this feels at times? You don't do this anywhere else in life. And I want to encourage you because when I see you walk up to church on Sundays, you know, I don't want to give you all the credit. here because i know it's the lord's spirit who's done this but it is a remarkable work of grace in your lives that you come and you devote yourselves to this message this is not normal this is this is not normal and i feel the great weight of that corinth got so obsessed with they got interested more in the pastor than the message so they had celebrity worship corinth worried about more about how it all looked and they wanted more power in the in the message they wanted more power in the ministry they started focusing on all the wrong things spiritual gifts and they lost the god they were losing the gospel we do this by dressing up worship more i mean you think we'd learn this lesson by now seeking less for people who come to experience the offense we want to take away that sting you have no idea how many people i've seen over the years who come in and never return in in 20 years of ministry who never return precisely for this reason it's this reason because they want something different from christianity than what is being said in the gospel to them and the method that's chosen of the strength and power of preaching how many well-known pastors think today and teach their congregations that the music is the worship and not the message this is what paul's saying i'm not ashamed the reason is it's because it is the message preached is the power of god listen to this to save those who believe that is a striking claim that is a radical claim that is a claim i hope that is not lost on you for hearing this so often paul was relentless in the face of these pressures to continue proclaiming the message in his ministry at one point even saying woe is me if i don't preach the gospel i call down prophetic curses on myself like Isaiah in the presence of God if I don't devote myself to making this the center of my ministry, the center of what I'm trying to accomplish, what I want to bring to people. Chad Vegas gave really good two talks at the Dindolk lectures this week at Westminster, and you know we're working to bring Sovereign Grace and Chad, the church, into the United reformed churches and i thought there were such helpful talks over there but he made a quote by james denny that i'd like to use here for a minute when men are suffering for cowardice they are compelled to become diplomats and strategists rather than heralds they manipulate their message they adapt to the spirit of the time they cowardly minister contriving to put something between his hearers and the gospel. Who is that? Himself. So they move to becoming winsome. At the root of it, he says, is a vicious protection of themselves. The minister and the one giving this message, when he stands between the people and the gospel, is trying to protect himself. Shepherds who fatten themselves upon the sheep because they're afraid of loss. They're afraid of when they preach this today that is so radical in the church. I mean, I see ads for churches for Easter coming up now. And I just saw one of Pastor John and Pastor Margaret and they're both standing up and they're saying, come to the Easter service. We've got Easter egg hunts for the kids. It's going to be a great fun time. We're going to get together and have a blast. It's going to be lots of activities. It's going to be a great message. And they stood between it already. They've stood between it already. When Christ is diminished. All because we're fearing what we will lose. And so we have to come across as soft and nice. I want to be nice. But Paul's talking about a lack of courage to retract from preaching Christ. To give himself to the devotion of preaching Christ. This is why Paul says, I count all things lost. if it's the loss of a paycheck, then it's the loss of a paycheck. If it's the loss of a job, it's the loss of a job. If it's the loss of my life, it's the loss of my life. Because this is God's power to save. You see? He believed that with all his heart. He believed in the powerful proclamation of the Gospel. That's foolishness to everyone else. And God made that so. So that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us when people do believe it. I've said this over and over, brothers and sisters. This is why we put so much primacy on preaching. Not just preaching, but preaching the gospel. As God's power for you and your children to be saved. That includes your children. For some reason, we have fought this. It's a hard concept for us. I think it's hard for us because of what we're dealing with with still struggling with the old man and the natural man's heart. The reason Paul said this is precisely because, listen to this statement, it is God's chosen effectual means to save you. our attitude might be that we know this and nothing could be further from the truth. You have no idea how polluted your lives are every week and how much you need to be refreshed in this and how it is the strength that upholds you. It's like drinking from that well of living water that Jesus was talking about to the woman at the well. That's a well that continues to spring up fresh, fresh in your lives, fresh in that truth, fresh to wash, fresh to give you the truth that sets you free. Until we appreciate this, we will always struggle with this. And this is why the provision the gospel makes for us is so important tonight to close on. Think about this. I'm not ashamed. Why am I not ashamed? How is this the power of God for salvation? How is it? How is this the power? For the Jew and for the Greek, for the order that's important. They received all the promises and it's for them in order first and then it goes out to the Gentiles to the ends of the earth. It's for all. What does he say? Because what's being ministered to you is righteousness. For in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed and is made known to you from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Here's the heart of it. Here's what's been given to you in this message preached. We've called this a means of grace for a long time. It's a hard concept to let set in, but it's so beautiful once you finally grasp it and understand it in your life for you and your families and your loved ones. Notice carefully, righteousness. we've been looking at christ's words in the sermon on the mount it said unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven there i've made the case that he's speaking of the peculiar christian character in the christian life that has to exceed the external hypocritical religion of the scribes and the pharisees but here paul's not speaking of that when the gospel is preached to you the book of Romans has a specific aim in talking about the righteousness of God. He says what is revealed in this message, what has been revealed in this gospel is that a righteousness comes from God and is given to you. It is the righteousness that God freely grants and credits to you to impute to you and cover you to have credited to your account the very righteousness concerning His Son. This is what you need in life most. If we believe what we believe about sin and we believe that God's judgment is very severe and we believe that we have all been what He's about to say in Romans 6, guilty, and that the wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life. And that's question 60 of our Heidelberg. How then are we right with God? It's only by true faith in Jesus Christ. So that though my conscience accused me that I have grossly transgressed all of God's commandments, and I've never kept any of them, and I'm still inclined toward all evil notwithstanding, here's what god did god without any merit of my own but out of free grace listen to it free grace grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction righteousness and holiness of christ even so as if i had never nor committed any sin as if i had fully accomplished all that obedience which christ has accomplished for me as much as i embrace that benefit with a believing heart that's what we're talking about here in the book of romans i am so committed to this message as the heart of everything that i'm aiming for doesn't mean we don't talk about application doesn't mean We don't talk about how to live the Christian life. We're talking about first things. We're talking about the aim of Christian ministry. We're talking about the goal of Christian ministry. It is to reveal the righteousness of God in Christ to you. It is to give that to you. What a God. What a God. He wants to give you the greatest gift He could give through this message. That even though your sins are like Mount Everest, you'll never make it before Him. on your own. You'll never be able to stand before Him on your own. God did the most overwhelming thing. He said, I'll do it. I'll give My Son. And My Son will fulfill all righteousness for them. And the Son says, Father, I'll gladly do it for them because I love them. and he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a burning stick snatched from the fire? Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel, and the angel said, Take those clothes off him. And he said to Joshua, See, I've taken away all your sin and I've put fine garments on you. Like that prodigal son who came home and the father threw that coat around him. Paul says, the righteousness of God that is received and comes by faith. You don't have to work for this. Believe it. Believe it. Just live by faith. That's been preached throughout the Old Testament. Meaning this righteousness is given to you and is imputed to you by faith when you believe. And that is from faith to faith. That is from the beginning all the way to the end until you walk into glory. You have everything you need. And Paul says, I'm committed to that. if I have to die for that, I'll die for that. With all these pressures to make this superficial, try to be winsome and get people to like it, I renounce all that hidden stuff of shame. It's absolutely foolish, but it is the power of God to save. Paul wanted them to appreciate that even though it's hated by the world, even though we'll be ridiculed for it, even though it will never be popular, I will give my whole life to continue without shame, making this the priority of my ministry to you. So I have one question tonight to close. One question. If this is what God put in the heart of pastors who rise up early and who write sermons, it's painstaking work, and He put it in their hearts to want to give you joy in this life, to give you the law like Jesus did to search the heart and show what your standing is before God, but then to give you Christ so that you would live in the joy of this comfort and be a happy, joyful people. If the runners are running to you, if God has put this in your life, think of all the faithful ministries here. I have a question. Do you have as much zeal and do you have as much joy to receive it by faith? Every time it's preached to you. That's what God loves. It is the power of God for you and your children to save you. Why in the world would you ever want anything different for the sake of making us more acceptable to the world? Believe this gospel. God has made it to be foolishness to the world. That's what it always will be to the world. But he's chosen to save you through it. So let us have believing hearts. Anticipating Romans 10. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Whoever believes in his heart that God raised his son from the dead and confesses with the mouth that great truth and believes that in the heart, think about today, Sermon on the Mount, believes it in the heart, that person will, without any measure of a doubt, be saved. And that's what Paul wants you to enjoy in this life what a wonderful god we serve let's praise him heavenly father thank you for the gospel thank you for your care in our lives to announce this gospel to send preachers we have so many in the midst right now training to be this bless them we pray oh lord that you continue this great work give us confidence in this and help us oh lord to move from the superficiality or for even us standing in the way, especially the pastors, so that this pure truth, this great news, this good news, in a world that offers us none, can sound out from this place. And may we always have confidence that this is Your power to save as You minister to us the very righteousness of Your Son. We bless You, And may we go in this strength this week. In Jesus' name, amen.