Romans 1:16-17

[00:00:00] So how many of you have seen the new Star Wars movie? Okay, good job. The rest of you I can give you counsel after the service. I don't know what's wrong with you but my brother-in-law who's also kind of doubles as one of my best friends.

[00:00:18] He went and saw it before I did. And it was like the second he got out of the movie theater. He was sending me text messages like when are we going to go? When do you want to go? He's just so excited about it.

[00:00:31] And then every couple of days I'd get like a fresh batch of messages like, How about today? How about tomorrow? And you know and they kind of... And so after a couple weeks of this I really kind of came to the conclusion.

[00:00:43] He's very excited about this movie and there must be a reason for it. Okay, he likes it at the very least that's the reason he liked it. When we're reading here the book of Romans,

[00:00:56] What we've already discovered in the first 15 verses that Paul is amped about the gospel. He loves it. And immediately he begins speaking of it. He talks about in the very first verse of the first chapter.

[00:01:09] He talks about the gospel of God and then he kind of details some of the facets of it. And then when he greets the church in Rome, who as a way of reminder, he'd never visited yet. He hadn't been to Rome to preach the gospel yet.

[00:01:27] But he'd heard of the church in Rome and probably from Corinth he writes this letter. And he tells them, I can't wait to come to you. I want to give you a spiritual gift. He says to them,

[00:01:38] But we left off with the last verse verse 15 of chapter one where he says, And I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. So he'd gone all over the world preaching the gospel and talking to non-believers about the gospel message,

[00:01:56] but also believers about the gospel message. And he just couldn't wait to get to Rome to communicate that gospel message. So seeing that kind of eagerness, I think we would then ask the question, why? Why were you so excited about this message?

[00:02:13] What is it about the gospel message that would give you that kind of eager desire? Remembering, of course, that Paul, when he would preach the gospel message, got into a lot of physical trouble and difficulty as a result of his gospel preaching.

[00:02:30] And he was willing to even endure pain as a result. So what was it that made him this way? And I think that today in verse 16 and 17, like I read, he kind of answers that question for us. He says, I'm not ashamed of it.

[00:02:45] Not ashamed of the gospel because, and then he gives us what I think really are four big reasons and he loves and appreciates the gospel so much. He says, it's the power of God. He says, it's for everyone.

[00:03:02] It communicates the righteousness of God and it develops this faith inside of us. So what I'm hoping is that we can, at the close of today, but also more importantly, the close of the book of Romans because it's Paul's treaties on the gospel.

[00:03:19] He's explaining the gospel to us. And I'm hoping that when we're done with it, at the end of this year, Lord willing, we'll be able to say, and I too am not ashamed of the gospel because I know that it's the power of God.

[00:03:34] And so I'm hoping and praying for that. Now if you just think about it, that first phrase when he says, Aaron verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel but I am not ashamed.

[00:03:45] You just think about it. There are maybe some temptations that might come into our heart to actually be ashamed of the gospel. In fact, when you read all the scholars about this little cluster of verses,

[00:04:00] a lot of them are really bummed out with Paul that he said that I am not ashamed of the gospel because he really could have said, at this point, I am very proud of the gospel.

[00:04:10] But he instead says it in a way that leaves a little bit of room like, he may have been tempted at one point or another to be ashamed of the gospel. And a lot of scholars don't like that because they can't imagine an apostle ever experiencing

[00:04:24] even the temptation to perhaps be ashamed of the gospel. But he's human and I think human beings have the possibility, even the best of us, to be ashamed of a message like the gospel.

[00:04:36] But Paul went through a process of getting over it and coming out and saying, no, I am not ashamed of it. Now what are some of the things that could lead us to be ashamed of the message of the gospel?

[00:04:49] Well, some of us might think, well, it's kind of a weak message. Maybe you've heard that before. Maybe you've heard that it's a message for people who need a crutch. It's a message for people who are really weak and that kind of thing.

[00:05:03] But Paul came to a point where he said, no, it's not a weak message. It's a message that is the power of our 16. It is the actual power of God. All right. Okay, that's all right. You guys are all nervous in everything.

[00:05:24] It's all right. I've heard of self-owned before. Okay. All right, so it's the power of God. We might also be tempted to be ashamed of the gospel because it's an exclusive message. You really think about it. It's exclusive. Jesus said, I'm the way that truth in the life.

[00:05:44] No man comes of the Father except by me. And we live in a culture and world where we love to say things like all roads lead to have an all roads lead to God. All religions are different paths to the same mountain top.

[00:05:59] There's a chance that it really doesn't teach that. It's very exclusive. And we might be tempted to feel very ashamed of that. But Paul came to this place where he realized, you know what? It might be in one sense of very exclusive message.

[00:06:14] But on the other hand, the most inclusive message that there is because it is for everyone who believes of the Jew first and also to the Greek. So we're going to look at that.

[00:06:28] And then, you know, we might also be tempted because some people think that, well, I mean, the cross. That's God. The Father letting His Son die a gruesome death. This seems to be an ugly message.

[00:06:44] But Paul actually got to a place where he says, no, what I've discovered is that it reveals the righteousness, the goodness, the majesty of God Himself. You just really can't know these things about God fully without the cross of Christ.

[00:07:01] And then, maybe even the means of receiving it because all the religions of the world say, do this, do this, do this and here's the outcome. And the gospel says, there is no, do this, do this, do this, do this,

[00:07:13] here's the outcome. Paul came to a point where he celebrated and said, I'm not ashamed that it's by faith and for faith and produces more faith. I'm not ashamed of that. And so we've got to go through that process.

[00:07:24] All right. So these are doctrines and things that Paul is saying and teaching and communicating to help him get to a point of saying, I am not ashamed of the gospel. Take note, his lack of shame did not come from just like pumping himself up.

[00:07:40] You know, there was no like eye of the tiger playing in the background and him just saying over and over again, like I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of this and maybe he've heard this kind of thing, you know, maybe somebody

[00:07:49] just over and over again. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel and then you kind of get to a point where you think, I think maybe you're struggling with being ashamed of

[00:07:59] the gospel. So if to say this over and over again, there are truths though that when we get them inside our hearts, that's what happened to Paul. When we get them inside our hearts

[00:08:11] and we see them in everyday life, it helps us to say, I'm not embarrassed at all of this message. It's so incredible and here's why. All right. So let's take a look at these elements

[00:08:23] of Paul said, here's why I'm not ashamed of the gospel. First of all, he said there are in verse 16. Let's look at our first. We're doing four chunks here. Our first

[00:08:30] little chunk he says for it is the power of God for salvation. It is the power of God for salvation. I remember years ago there was a brother in the church, he actually still

[00:08:49] kind of comes to the area here and there but he spends part of the year here, part of the year in Phoenix and he worked for the Phoenix Sun's Pro basketball team. He had told

[00:08:59] me, he said, hey if you ever want to, if you're ever in Phoenix or everyone to come down to Phoenix during basketball season, let me know. And if you're there on a game day, I

[00:09:07] love to give you tickets and you can see a game. So I am a lacrospan, it's kind of a rough time for us. I kind of like basketball but I was like, okay, oh we'll go down there sometimes.

[00:09:20] So we went down and he gave us some tickets and then when we got there he says, hey, I actually want to take you around. I want to show you underneath the stadium and look at some locker rooms

[00:09:31] and stuff like that. I'm like, oh cool, little field trip so we're cruising around and the billakers were actually playing them and he says, actually if we stand over here, this is where

[00:09:41] they're going to walk out from their locker room through the tunnel and then they're going to go out onto the core and we just kind of stand here. They say hi, they give high five stuff like that.

[00:09:49] And so we could just kind of stand here and you could wait, would you like to do that? My eye out would be cool, you know. So this was back when the the lakers had this player named Shaquille O'Neill and he's huge. He was like 7273

[00:10:01] and 300 something pounds, you know, just a really big man. And so these guys are walking out, you know, basketball players are tall and I'm very impressed but when Shaquille O'Neill came out,

[00:10:14] it really was everything within me not to just say, oh my goodness that's a very large man. Because it just like he came out and everybody else just looked so puny, you know, and I'm

[00:10:26] not talking about like, you know, concession stand workers. I'm talking about his teammates who are also very large but not that level of large. And it just impressed me, all right? Paul, if you think

[00:10:38] about it he had a front row seat during the entirety of his Christian life to seeing what he said here in verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God for salvation. He had

[00:10:51] watched that over and over again. The first time that he's mentioned in the Bible, he's called Saul. That was the name that he had at first and he became to be known as Paul's

[00:11:03] a Christian man. But when he was a non-believer Saul, the first time that we see him, it's actually found earlier in the book of Acts. When a deacon in the church named Stephen is preaching,

[00:11:17] he has an opportunity to share. He teaches the religious leaders. They saw his face like the face of an angel. There was like this glory about him as he's preaching and they rejected his message.

[00:11:30] And as they rejected his message, they decided that he needed to die for the thing that he was preaching. And so before they picked up rocks to stone him to death, they took off their coats.

[00:11:40] And when they took off their coats, the Bible says that they laid them at the feet of the of Saul, this young man named Saul. One of his first mention of him in the Bible, and he watches this guy

[00:11:52] Stephen, who with the face of an angel had been preaching and then had been radically rejected. And he's watching this guy getting pelted with rock after rock, slowly dying and saying, Lord, forgive them. And I'm sure that there was this thing in Paul's heart of going,

[00:12:12] what makes somebody say that? That's the power of the gospel, the power of the gospel to save. I wonder if Paul asked the question in his own heart, if somebody was stoning me for my Judaism,

[00:12:26] would I respond in that way? And I think that on-sensor would be no. God had done a such a work of grace inside of Stephen's heart. When Paul got saved in Acts chapter 9, it was a radical conversion

[00:12:40] and everything I recounted to you all the time. But one of the first events that happened was this Christian named Ananias was told by the Lord to go in prayer for Saul or Paul. And Saul,

[00:12:57] by that time had become a known killer of Christians. He was persecuting them during the minute prison and consenting to many of their deaths. And so the Lord tells Ananias, hey go meet with

[00:13:10] Saul. And so Ananias is like, Lord, I know you love me. And so I don't know why you would make me do this. You know, why would you send me to him? He says, don't worry. He's one of us now. He's on our team.

[00:13:21] He goes. And he says to him, the first words out of his mouth, he says, brother, Saul. He had a front row seat. What makes a person do that? That's the gospel, saving someone so

[00:13:31] completely that they could look at someone who previously killed their kind. And now says, brother, you're my brother, we're family, we're family. The gospel did that in Ananias' life. And on and on, when Paul, you know, eventually 13, 14 years later when he was one of the leaders

[00:13:50] in the church in Antioch. So beautiful church was really exciting. Barnabas asked him to come help him with the church there. And he's there in this church and it actually says in the book of

[00:14:02] Acts, and I mean, I'll give you a place where Christians were that they were first called Christians. And it wasn't because they kind of got together and they're like, you know, we need a name for our

[00:14:11] team. And so let's go. Let's go Christians. It was the other people looked at them and said, no, we need a name for you. We're going to call you Christians. You're behaving like Jesus.

[00:14:21] You're like Christ. It's really what it means. And so it was just beautiful in the church in Ania. He's watching people have different backgrounds and histories and religions and race come together now under the submission to the gospel, belief in the gospel. And he just, it's beautiful.

[00:14:39] And then one day they're praying him and the other leaders in the church in Aniach and the Holy Spirit says, separate unto me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them.

[00:14:51] So the other leaders pray for them and send Barnabas and Saul on their first missionary journey before missionary journey city been been invented. And they go out to Cree and Pesidia and Durby

[00:15:07] and Lystra and all these places around in this circuit and they come back to Aniach and they report to their home church and say, we went to all these towns and people believed. Not everybody

[00:15:19] believed but people believe. These people in these pagan cultures and lifestyles and all that they came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And now places where churches did not exist,

[00:15:30] they exist. And then he just kept going. He would go to Philippi, he would go to Cecilanaika, he would go to Beria, he would go to Athens and eventually he'd go to Corinth which is probably

[00:15:42] where he wrote this Peticular letter, the book of Romans from. But Paul up to this point in his life and then on even after he wrote this letter he had a front row seat to sing the power of God

[00:15:53] that leads to salvation. What kind of salvation is Paul talking about? There's a small way of thinking about salvation and a big way of thinking about salvation. He says, it's the power of God

[00:16:07] for salvation. The smaller way is to say what salvation is is there was a point where I said, yes to Christ, he died on the cross for my sin and he paid the penalty for me and I invited him

[00:16:24] into my life and heart. I trusted him for the forgiveness of my sin and now I am saved from my sin. Usually by that we also mean and then fast forward into the far in distant future or maybe

[00:16:37] the not so far in distant future. But there's going to be the time where I'm going to be saved from the future judgment of God eternally. But there's this big gap in between the initial moment

[00:16:50] of salvation and the salvation from the judgment of God and it's this life that we're in right now. And that as well can also be termed the a space that is under the salvation of God.

[00:17:06] So we're justified by God. So in God's courtroom we are seen as innocent without guilt. We are reconciled to God. That's another word that comes under or inside the salvation where reconciled. In other words, we used to be enemies of God whether you knew it or not

[00:17:24] but when you receive the gospel message, you now become a friend of God. That radically reconciled to him that you become his friend. That unified to him redeemed. By God this is also a word that's inside of the salvation word and I love the word redeemed.

[00:17:41] It means that we were bought out of slavery and yeah that does have a one time positional kind of aspect to it but one of the things we're going to discover in Romans is that it's a continual

[00:17:53] thing that the Lord is saying hey there's another area that I bought you out of slavery and and you're still in it a little bit and so I'm gonna I buy I paid for it by my blood. I paid for

[00:18:04] that already so I'm going to get you out. I'm going to get you out. So the word salvation is really big so the gospel is to be continually working in our lives to help us experience a power of God

[00:18:17] to be delivered and saved and all of that. So Paul had seen it. It is the power of God for salvation and that caused him to just absolutely abundantly rejoice. So in one sense Paul could say

[00:18:32] it like this I'm not ashamed of the gospel because I know what it did to me. Right I hope you can say that. Yeah, you're talking to the Christian that you kind of if you didn't know their history or

[00:18:47] their life or anything but in speaking with them you just imagine like looking at them you know you're not supposed to judge but you did and when you were looking at them you thought

[00:18:55] man I bet their whole life was just squeaky clean. You know they're so nice they're so kind and then they start telling you their history and you can't believe it. Right you ever thought

[00:19:09] that ever happened to you maybe have you ever thought that about me? Probably not probably not. I'm like I used to be like yeah I can imagine. I see it. All right that's the power of the gospel

[00:19:23] working in someone's life when that level of change and transformation occurs it's powerful. All right secondly also in verse 16 here's another thing that caused Paul to say I'm not ashamed he says it's the power of God to salvation here it is to everyone who believes to the

[00:19:43] Jew first and also to the Greek. So it's in one sense of course it is exclusive but it's also very inclusive it's for everyone who believes and then he gives an example of this to the Jew first

[00:20:01] and also to the Greek. Now you guys know this that when Paul went on his missions trips and went from city to city he actually followed that order of preaching he would go to the Jew first

[00:20:13] and then he would preach to the Gentile world or the Greek living world and it was a very strategic thing that he would do because Paul had been a rabbi and a Pharisee and what the synagogues did throughout

[00:20:27] the world you know in various towns I think it was you had to have 10 Jewish males in a town but they would if they had that they would form a synagogue and so on Saturdays they would come

[00:20:36] together to study the scripture and one of the parts or elements of their services is they would ask the question are there any rabbis here anybody who's got got that credential you know

[00:20:47] you've got that education and you want to share with us and so Paul would go straight to the synagogue and when that's that question he's like well yes I do have a thing or two that I'd like to say

[00:20:57] and he would take the Old Testament and he would teach from the Old Testament the Gospel which is not that hard to do but it was very not hard for Paul to do because he'd studied the Old

[00:21:07] Testament so well and he was prepared and so he would share the Gospel with them and it really as you read the book of Acts it varied from town to town some places lots of people that had previously

[00:21:20] been following Judaism became Christians and sometimes hardly any and a big resistance to the Gospel came but usually what would happen is then the next Saturday would roll around Paul would kind of

[00:21:33] prepare there be seven days where word would get out like this is guy he was here last week this rabbis names Paul he preached he talked to us about this guy named Jesus and and then the next week

[00:21:44] attendance in the synagogue was they broke all their attendance records because everyone following Judaism was there but then also the Gentiles would be there and Paul would preach the Gospel

[00:21:56] to them to the Jew first and also to the Greek and what Paul came to discover said this Gospel message applies to everyone who believes it's not just a Jewish thing it's not just a Greek thing

[00:22:11] now that those two classifications help us understand that the Gospel really does go everywhere into anyone first of all that's quite the religious spectrum the Jews Judaism you have monotheists they have a set you know revelation the Old Testament and then you've got the Greeks you've

[00:22:32] got pagans and I wanted to say at the 730 service this morning that they would worship anything that walked but it was actually more than that even walking plus just like being planted in the ground

[00:22:45] floating in the sky whatever there would be you know those who would worship in that kind of way and everything in between anyone no matter the religious background can come to know Jesus Christ is their Lord and as their

[00:23:00] Savior has application across all the entire religious spectrum Jew and Greek and then also it speaks to us of the entire racial spectrum the Jews would look at Greeks as those on the outside unclean you might remember when Peter walked into Cornelius this house an Acts chapter 10

[00:23:21] to preach a Gospel he walks in and he basically says hey you guys all know a bunch of Gentiles he says you all know I've never really done that before I've never come to a Gentile's house but God told

[00:23:33] me too so here I am what do you want me to talk about all right so the Gospel goes to everyone though Jew and Greek the timeline spectrum as well because the Jews received first they got the truth of

[00:23:49] God's word revelation you have Abraham Isaac Jacob but the Gentiles they hadn't heard they had known and this might be comforting to some of you who you know some of you you came to Christ

[00:24:03] and you have a generationally solid Christian family and you were having the Gospel preached to you when you were you know could couldn't even read yet and people are showing you the way to Christ and

[00:24:17] and you're hearing it some of you that's not your history at all and that's not in your background but you need to know it's for everyone the Jew first but also to the Greek and then every

[00:24:30] culture is also included there because that's such a contrast the Jewish culture and the Greek living culture every culture is included the Gospel could apply to every culture on earth you don't

[00:24:44] have to adopt a new culture you get to be in the culture you're in and accept Christ this is a beautiful message like I've been to India before and I saw the lowest cast's and their religion wasn't working out

[00:24:58] for them but the Gospel message applies to every culture every race every timeline and whatever religious background you have you can still come to Christ isn't that beautiful and so he says to everyone who believes he's very excited about that and then he says notice in verse 17

[00:25:16] here's another reason a third reason that Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel he says for in it the righteousness of God is revealed in it the righteousness of God is revealed righteousness means purity, uprightness, justness, perfection, words like that help describe with the word righteousness means

[00:25:39] so what does Paul mean when he says hey the Gospel reveals the righteousness of God what is Paul mean by that? in one sense he means he's got to be meaning that you can't understand

[00:25:57] the holiness and the righteousness and the purity and the uprightness of God fully accurately without the Gospel I mean like an Old Testament there was a lot about God that they would look at and

[00:26:12] say he's holy right I mean they would come to worship and there was a priesthood and sacrifices that had to be offered in a certain way you didn't just roll in and bust open the curtain and be like

[00:26:24] God here I am was saying out there wasn't like that there was this process that would help you understand he's holy when Moses said it's time for me to go here from God I'm going to go up

[00:26:35] to the mountaintop and he said you can't come and you can't even touch the base of the mountain and they're waiting standing back and Moses goes up and they see the lightning and hear the

[00:26:45] thunder and they watch the clouds come and all of that they would understand God's holy God's holy to a degree but in the cross of Christ because here's the thing people say well

[00:26:58] why couldn't why can't God just turn to turn a blind eye to sin why can't why can't he just say it's all good you're all in it's fine I'll turn away from it I won't look at it you're all in

[00:27:11] and at the cross of Jesus we see oh it's because he's I mean so holy isn't the right way to say it because it's either your holy or you're not but you know what I mean when I say he's so holy

[00:27:24] there's just this absolute perfection and majesty to him that when we see the cross of Christ we go oh that's what it took that's what it took for you to change me into being righteous like you

[00:27:42] you are so righteous so holy so pure so upright so in one sense in the Gospel we see God's righteousness but I think there's another sense there and Paul I think probably is really

[00:27:56] talking about this when he says it's in the cross of Jesus that we learn how righteousness actually even comes into my life and into your life it's found in the Gospel so those words that I just

[00:28:09] said to you about what the God what righteousness is uprightness purity straightness how many of you would like to have more of that in your life and in your heart you know the Lord just like working in you

[00:28:22] there's more purity of rightness holiness straightness virtue correctness of thought and action these are all words that describe righteousness and it's through the message of the Gospel that this righteousness is not only imputed deposited given but also experienced and lived out Romans 5 17 will tell

[00:28:44] us that the free gift of righteousness came through the one man Jesus Christ all right so Paul is proud of the Gospel you could say because the righteousness of God is revealed we've figured out

[00:28:58] how righteous God is but also how we can receive the righteousness of God in ourselves and it comes through the message of the Gospel and then lastly look at this final phrase at the end of

[00:29:12] verse 17 from faith for faith as it is written the righteous shall live by faith so this message comes the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written the righteous shall live by faith

[00:29:30] so here's the last thing Paul rejoices over he's just celebrating he's like okay not ashamed of the Gospel because you know God's power to save people it's found inside the Gospel and it's for everybody this is a matter what your background is for everybody who believes

[00:29:46] and you know I'm just so excited about it because the righteousness of God is finally seen as a result of this Gospel message from faith for faith so what does that mean? I think in one sense

[00:30:00] obviously he just rejoicing at how you get the Gospel blessings of righteousness inside your heart inside your life it's not through works it's not through you know trying you can't get the purity uprightness holding us of God by trying to be upright pure and holy you've got to

[00:30:20] put your faith and trust in this Gospel message what does that mean? Well you probably heard the analogy before but forgive me if you have but a lot of you here we are not a lot of you I was

[00:30:31] going to say a lot of you were sitting you're all sitting okay we're here we are in the you're in these chairs and you're sitting there and you're putting obviously your weight the entirety of your

[00:30:42] weight upon those chairs and you're not even really thinking about it right you just did it you're sitting there you're trusting in the chair all right that's that's part of what faith is

[00:30:52] it's to put trust in to lean fully upon all right you're not sitting there on the edge of your seat like man if this thing goes out I'm gonna be ready no you're just if it went out you'd

[00:31:04] be on the floor you know you're resting fully and completely in it and that's how you enter into the blessings of the Gospel the message goes out you send your broken the world is broken

[00:31:19] but God sent his son to live like us to be one of us he lived a perfect life he died on the cross took a judgment into his body that we deserve but he took it for himself and he rose from the dead

[00:31:32] and if you believe in him if you trust in him if you put your weight onto him you say I can't be saved by what I do I can't be saved by going to a church I can't be saved by any other thing I have

[00:31:43] to put my weight onto him you do that and you enter into this Gospel you're born again you're born again but then Paul says the second thing he says from faith did you see it there for faith

[00:31:59] for some of your rivals might say from faith to faith what does that mean when he says it's it's from faith so you like you enter into it by faith but for faith to faith what does that mean

[00:32:11] what is Paul indicating when he says that well I think that his little quotation helps us because he goes on and says as it is written so now he's gonna quote from the Bible the Old Testament specifically from the prophet Habakkuk and anybody quoted from Habakkuk today

[00:32:28] and thinks so but Paul did he was a Pharisee very familiar with the Bible as it is written the righteous shall live by faith now Habakkuk he's a prophet with a complaint against God and it's

[00:32:45] complaint was really simple he looks out at God's people the people of Israel and they were in a bad season during his life and so he says to God God here's all your people they're

[00:32:57] called your people they're the covenant people of God that is real the house of God all right so here they are they're your people and they are not behaving like your people so

[00:33:09] would you revive them maybe discipline them it was kind of his suggestion to God so God said sure I will I heard your prayer this is how I'm going to do it I'm going to send the Babylonians

[00:33:23] to come and carry them away captive kind of destroy them that'll be their discipline and eventually they'll revive as a result but that's gonna be what I'm going to do and Habakkuk had a real problem with that because in his mind he's like okay we're I know

[00:33:39] that we're evil and I'm complaining about that to you but the Babylonians they went pro in evil they really know how to do it and how could they be the ones to come and bring judgment against

[00:33:52] us so he argued with God okay so if you've done that you're not alone a prophet did it he argues with God but then here's what happened maybe this is a difference with some of us

[00:34:02] and Habakkuk when Habakkuk got done arguing with God he said and I know that wasn't right so I'm going to go into my tower he says and I'm going to wait to see what God says when he

[00:34:15] corrects me okay I know I just complain and I said you're wrong I'm right and I know that can't be right so I'm going to wait and God then spoke to him and one of the first things that God said

[00:34:28] Habakkuk two verse four the righteous for the just will live by their faith do you trust me do you trust me will you lean upon me now in other places Paul would use like in Galatians Paul

[00:34:42] would use that quotation as an Old Testament example of that we're made just by faith you lean on the Lord you're made righteous by faith but I think here Paul is saying something maybe saying that

[00:34:56] but something bigger than that he seems to be saying that our whole life now if you put your trust you leaned on to Jesus you leaned on to that gospel message now that's how you live the rest of your

[00:35:11] life before the Lord you're going to have to lean upon Jesus and specifically and this is where is very applicable for what we're going to be doing in the book of Romans we're going to have to

[00:35:23] lean upon him in faith as we read some of the things that he says to us because more than likely for you and I say this because I've experienced this myself when we go through Romans and we read some

[00:35:37] of the things we read there's going to be part of you that doesn't want to believe it you won't want to believe it and in order to really experience these things that are true that he says

[00:35:53] you're going to have to lean upon and say I accept it you're going to have to have real faith and trust it might not make a lot of sense like how the cooks thing that he received from the Lord it might

[00:36:04] not make a lot of sense to you but you're going to have to really lean and trust in the Lord like let me give you an example of this when we get to Romans chapter six I think seven and eight there's

[00:36:15] going to be some arguments that come out of our own hearts about what Paul says the Holy Spirit says we're going to learn in Romans six that if you're a Christian if you've put your trust in Christ

[00:36:29] that it's like you died with Jesus we're buried with Jesus in rows from the dead with Jesus so that you could be raised up to newness of life and what you're we're going to discover is that the newness of life

[00:36:42] isn't just this future thing exclusively but it's right here and now newness of life right now even that by itself there's going to be a lot of our heart that will say hmm no that's not what I feel

[00:36:55] that's not what I feel that's not my experience I don't feel newness of life and we're going to have to have faith and trust and a leaning just like when we leaned up on the Lord someone preach that

[00:37:11] initial aspect of the gospel message as we said I believe that when we get to this portion that you have a resurrected life in Christ that you have newness of life we're going to say I believe

[00:37:24] I trust the Lord in that but then Paul's going to go on and he's going to say like in Romans six verse 11 he's going to say you are not a slave of sin but you could be a slave of righteousness

[00:37:38] so reckon or consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God that's going to take faith you see the Bible doesn't say because you know what's tempting to feel like is I feel very alive to sin

[00:37:58] and sometimes dead to God feel very alive to sin and dead to God and maybe the temptation in your heart when we get to truths like that is you're going to say to yourself you're going to say well you

[00:38:09] know maybe for other people they're feeling dead to sin and alive to God but I don't feel that way I don't see how this could be true so that's why I think part of the reason my Paul is saying here

[00:38:21] the very outset this is what it's got to produce faith for more faith you're going to be living this whole Christian life by faith and when these doctrines come out at you and he says you're new

[00:38:33] you can be a slave of righteousness you're dead to sin you have newness of life and when you see all these things there's going to be a part of our heart this is not I don't believe that but we're going to

[00:38:44] have to believe that there's going to be a requirement of faith in this gospel message you guys see where I'm going with this so that's going to be necessary for the duration

[00:38:56] of the book of Romans so I think he's also rejoicing here because the gospel gives life continually by faith the continual belief in the beautiful themes and doctrines that are all contained

[00:39:11] here in the book of Romans and in the message of the gospel itself which Paul is clarifying in the book of Romans so that's why I say I'm hoping that you know wherever it is I'm not calling

[00:39:26] my shot or anything but I'm thinking second week of December but who knows don't hold me to it but when we say at the end of Romans 16 amen I hope that we will be able to say more than

[00:39:40] ever I am not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God for salvation and I believe it I trust in it on all the various themes inside of it I believe it and I want to watch the Lord

[00:39:55] work in my life more than ever I believe these truths of what he says about me amen okay so Lord we thank you so much and Father we're wanting so badly to get these truths really embedded deep inside our

[00:40:22] hearts and Lord in the weeks to come when we feel that temptation to be ashamed maybe even next week a shamed of this message Lord we pray that there be a boldness inside of us that says no no but I know

[00:40:40] of what it can do and I know it's for everyone I know it's the only true message just the one that really changes and really transforms Lord we pray that that would be firmly embedded inside of our

[00:40:53] hearts Lord God Father we thank you for the story of what you've done in each one of our lives as of us who have received this gospel message and really believed Lord in you trusted in what you've done

[00:41:07] Lord for us on your cross and Lord we pray and ask that we be able to buy faith appropriate these beautiful promises that you've given to us what you say about us Lord what you've communicated

[00:41:21] about us Lord we pray that we get to that point like Paul the saying I'm not ashamed to be all to say with Paul I am so convinced that nothing death not life angels principalities powers none of it

[00:41:37] life nor death none of it can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord help us Lord to get to that place as your word comes into our minds and hearts as we read and think

[00:41:53] and study it Lord so we pray Father that you would do that and as we're praying I want to ask you if you're here today and you have not yet said yes to Jesus he loves you he cares for you

[00:42:08] you're carrying around guilt and shame you're not innocent before God you're not born innocent before God and you've not acted innocently before God your guilty but he doesn't want you to carry that

[00:42:21] around anymore he wants to forgive you he's made away for you to be cleansed of all that and shame and guilt to be washed of all that and that Jesus took your place your judgment upon

[00:42:34] the cross but you have to lean upon him you have to put your trust in him he rose from the dead to verify that what he did was effective and you simply say to him I believe in you I trust in you

[00:42:51] I trust in you I trust in you for salvation I trust in you to get inside my life and heart to give me the righteousness of God I trust in you to change me I trust in you to do this in my life

[00:43:09] so if you're in need of God's forgiveness in your life positionally you're in need of being saved you're in need of being born again you're in need of that today then the Bible says

[00:43:25] today is the day of salvation now is the acceptable time so I want to just ask you if that's you I want to implore you receive Christ surrender to him give your life to him your heart to him

[00:43:41] and let him come into your life and do what you could never do on your own and there's anyone here this morning you'd say that's me I want to receive Christ into my life is forgiveness

[00:43:54] his grace, his position if that's you I want to pray with you so could you raise your hand right now up that's you today I don't know if there's anybody but I would love to pray with you I'll see you back

[00:44:05] there brother I see you right here sir anybody else this morning that you are ready to have him come into your heart and life God bless you me I might see you sir anyone else okay if that's you

[00:44:38] you just cry out to God personally from your heart you say God have mercy upon me a sinner thank you for sending Jesus to die for me and to take the punishment that I deserve come into my life and

[00:44:56] into my heart I give my life to you and I ask you be my savior and I want you to be my Lord and then you can pray help me to live a life for you and he will do that by giving his holy spirit to

[00:45:15] you and helping you live a life for him and so Lord we thank you you're just so good we praise you in Jesus name amen amen