[0:00] Well, I praise the Lord for the opportunity to be here with you all. And I appreciate Pastor Trent, appreciate his friendship, really enjoyed our time together when he was down in Chile with us back in July.
[0:11] And it was a blessing for him. As we got to the end of that week, a couple of the pastors came up and said, we ought to schedule him to come back soon. He was a great blessing, which the pastors don't always say that about guests that come down and preach.
[0:24] So it was so encouraging to hear and see how God used him there. But we're excited to get back to Chile, be praying for our family. We're leaving tomorrow morning. The Lord has opened up doors of opportunity there that we're trying to steward and ask the Lord for wisdom through the men that have been trained and sent out through the team that's working together there in Chile.
[0:44] Church number 16 is being started currently. And we have 76 students at the Bible College that are preparing for ministry between men and women. And we need the Lord's wisdom.
[0:55] And we ask that you be praying for the work there in Chile. And we thank you for your kindness that you've shown toward our family during this furlough. I'd like to invite you to go with me in God's word to the book of Romans this evening.
[1:08] We're going to start with the theme that we have, Forward in the Gospel, and then we'll end tonight at the Lord's Supper as we think about the message of the Gospel and we celebrate together this local church ordinance.
[1:23] But when we think about forward in the Gospel, we think about missionaries. We go forward with the Gospel. And how can we understand the importance of going forward with the Gospel?
[1:35] How can we understand that we don't just go or we don't just send people with the Gospel, but we should be living in the Gospel. And I don't know about you. Some of you might be like I am.
[1:47] Some of you live in the world of the abstract. You feel comfortable with ideas that aren't very easy to define. And then some of you are like me.
[1:58] You think a little bit more like spreadsheets and specifics, black and white. And sometimes I get to biblical ideas and I find myself thinking through, what does this mean?
[2:11] And how do we apply this? And there's a lot of conversation about the Gospel and a lot of messages and preaching and different things that are said about living in the Gospel, being in the Gospel.
[2:25] And there's an application to unbelievers and there's an application to believers. So let's do this for tonight, all right? I'm going to try to take God's Word and walk through the Word with you all this evening and come to a few conclusions and then we'll celebrate the Lord's Supper as we remember what He did for us, okay?
[2:44] So let's say that this side of the church is going to represent the unbelievers. You're just representing them, all right? Nothing offensive, nothing personal. And this side would be the group of believers maturing in Christ.
[2:57] And, all right, good. We need to go to them with the Gospel, right? But there's an application here. And for many years, when I thought of the Gospel in my early Christian life and even early ministry, my mind raced to this side.
[3:14] And when you think about the Gospel, preaching the Gospel, sharing the Gospel, the ministry of the Gospel, your mind might, as mine did, run to the idea of, let's take the Gospel and share it with someone else.
[3:28] Even if I were to walk up to someone that's been here at the church for many years and I were to ask you this evening, hey, could you take the Bible and go share the Gospel with this person?
[3:39] You would understand, oh, He's asking me to take the Bible and to show the plan of salvation. What the Bible says about who we are before we knew Christ, we're sinners, we're all born sinners, and then to show the consequence of that sin is death and to show what Jesus did on the cross.
[3:59] He died in our place. And it's not by works that we do, it's by what Christ did, the finished work of Christ on the cross. And you would go through certain verses, and there's multiple ways of showing the truth of the Gospel.
[4:14] But many times the book of Romans ends up being one of the paths that we take. But then on the other side, we have this living in the Gospel.
[4:25] Living in the Gospel. And if you read many Christian books or follow along with some of the trends or things that are discussed or blogs that are written, no doubt you've seen and you've heard maybe a frequency that's more common about Gospel-centered living or Gospel-centered preaching or Gospel-driven or Gospel-powered or Gospel ministries, Gospel pastors, Gospel shepherds, Gospel even coffee shops.
[4:56] The word Gospel ends up being an adjective to describe a lot of things. And you can find yourself using a lot of these kind of catchphrases. Let's get together for Gospel coffee and Gospel fellowship and have Gospel love and Gospel friendship.
[5:11] And you think, all right, what does this really mean? And that's like out of my level of comfort because we're moving into the abstract and I want to pull things back into the easy to understand.
[5:23] But the book of Romans starts off speaking about the Gospel. And the theme is the Gospel. The theme is salvation in Christ.
[5:34] And we see there's applications for both those that are unbelievers and those who are believers. And as we think about moving forward in the Gospel as believers, we need to move forward with the Gospel while living in the Gospel.
[5:50] And that's the idea that we'll look into God's Word this evening. Let's start in verse number one. The Bible says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God.
[6:05] We're in Romans chapter one, verse number one. Paul there, he's called to be an apostle, a sent one. Today, we use the word missionary for someone that is a sent person.
[6:16] So Paul's identifying himself here as a servant, as a bond slave of Jesus Christ. He's called to be a sent one. He's been separated unto. What are the last three words of verse number one?
[6:28] All right, that leads me to the conclusion that very few of you are following along with me here in verse number one. All right? I'm going to have to have your help.
[6:39] The way I preach in Chile is I ask questions occasionally in the message, and people give answers back. That helps me to know that you're awake. All right? So this will be helpful. Let's go back. Verse number one.
[6:50] Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God. So Paul identifies himself here at the beginning as he's writing this letter to Rome, and he tells the church there that he is an apostle, he's a slave, a servant of God, and he has been set apart to the Gospel of God, the Gospel of God.
[7:16] Verse number 16 is the key verse of this entire book. The Bible says, For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
[7:34] So first of all, let's look in the Scripture here, and let's think about the idea that we go with the Gospel. We go to those that are unbelievers, and we go with the Gospel.
[7:45] Now, as we think about the Gospel being the great theme of this book, it's already mentioned here in the verses prior to verse number 16, Paul talks about how he wants to go.
[7:56] Let's just read it. Verse number 15. So as much as in me, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are in Rome, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. And he goes on to speak more about the Gospel.
[8:09] But what is the Gospel? Let's define the idea of the Gospel. Let's get back to the basics. I know many of you would say, we understand this clearly. But in order for us to apply it, it's helpful to go back and remember what the Bible says about the Gospel.
[8:26] The word itself means the good news. Okay, so this is the good news of God. Verse number 1. Paul separated to this good news, this message from God.
[8:37] Verse number 16. It's the Gospel of Christ. And it's speaking of Jesus. We're not going to take the time to go through the verses, but verse number 2 and 3 of this chapter specifically speak about who Jesus is, the Son of God, the one that fulfilled the prophecies.
[8:55] And the whole book is going to lay out who Jesus is as our Savior. But 1 Corinthians chapter number 15 is a text that gives us a very clear, succinct definition of the Gospel.
[9:10] If you have your Bibles there, you can go with me to 1 Corinthians chapter number 15, verse number 1. And we'll see the first four verses here of 1 Corinthians chapter number 15.
[9:22] If someone were to ask, what does the Gospel mean? What is the good news of Jesus? What's so good? What is the Gospel? So we can understand this. The Bible says here, verse number 1, 1 Corinthians 15, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel, which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also ye are saved.
[9:50] Now notice, we're going to see this a couple of times in the verses we're going to study tonight. But when we have this Gospel message, it's directly tied into being saved.
[10:02] Now look what it says, ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which ye also are saved. If you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
[10:14] For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received. How that Christ died. What is the Gospel? Number one, Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.
[10:29] And that, number two, He was buried. And that, number three, He rose again the third day, according to the Scripture.
[10:40] Notice after it says Christ died, the next phrase, why did He die? What's the text say there? The next three words? For our sins.
[10:50] So we think about what the Gospel is. Now this, if you don't get anything else, this will be helpful. You can write this down. You can remember it. You can have this text highlighted.
[11:02] But the Gospel message simply is that Jesus died, that Jesus was buried, that Jesus rose from the dead, and that He did this for our sins.
[11:15] And we can be saved as we put our faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. When He rose from the dead, that declared that He was the Son of God.
[11:27] Romans chapter 1, verse number 2 through 4 speaks about that, about how the resurrection is just clear evidence. This is God in the flesh. This is the Son of God.
[11:39] This isn't just a mere man. This is God in the flesh. Now, as we think about the good news, the good news is that all of us are sinners.
[11:50] All of us deserve hell. All of us deserve to be separated from Christ for all of eternity because we have sinned. But God loved us, and He sent His Son, and Jesus died on the cross, and He paid the price for our sins, and He was buried, and He rose again from the dead, and He offers us the free gift of salvation.
[12:14] What are we being saved from? Well, we're being saved from the consequences of our sin. He died for our sin. Now, as you think about the gospel, many of you, your mind goes there.
[12:26] Share the gospel, preach the gospel, send the gospel. We're part of a gospel ministry. Those of us who have been ordained, oftentimes we've been ordained to the gospel ministry.
[12:37] You know, you hear this phrase used a lot, and we think about, all right, I am not ashamed of the gospel. Like Paul, I'm going to Rome to preach the gospel.
[12:48] I am a Christian. I am a sent one, and I've been set apart to the ministry of the gospel, taking the gospel to those who have not heard, or taking the gospel to those who maybe have heard but have not believed.
[13:03] And if you're here tonight, and you've not placed your faith in Christ alone, we encourage you before you leave this evening, there are people who can take God's word. They're at the next steps table after the service.
[13:15] There's always someone available, and you can go up and tell them you've got some questions. You want to understand the gospel better. You want to know how you can place your faith in Christ. You want to see what the Bible has to say about that, and someone can take the scriptures and show you the gospel message, which is so important.
[13:34] As we go back to Romans chapter number one, to our key text this evening, when we think about the gospel, the gospel is the message that Christ died, Christ was buried, Christ rose again for our sins.
[13:47] Romans 1.16, Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Here it is. He's not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
[13:59] Why? Because it's the power of God unto salvation. The way to be saved, the way to enjoy salvation, is by putting our faith in Christ. The reason why we preach this message boldly, openly, quickly, and with much excitement and much commitment is because only through Christ is there salvation.
[14:22] There's no other name given among men whereby you may be saved or you must be saved is we think about what the Bible says that's only through Christ. And this message needs to be taken to the world.
[14:36] As it states here, it's the power of God unto salvation. Notice what it says, to everyone that believeth. I like the phrase everyone there because it is a invitation that's extended to all.
[14:50] God wants the whole world to know who he is. But it's to everyone that believeth. That believeth. This reminds us that faith is involved.
[15:01] We must believe. We must place our faith in Christ. We must understand the gospel message, but not just understand it. We must believe in Jesus Christ. Now, verse number 17 goes on to say, for therein, therein, speaking of what we just read, that believing in Christ, there's salvation in him.
[15:22] For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. The righteousness of God. We see God's righteousness. His righteousness is applied to our account as we believe in him.
[15:36] And again, it is by faith. So that's the reason why we go with the gospel. People must hear. Okay? When we think about the unbelieving world, what is the application with the gospel?
[15:48] We must go with the gospel. We take the message of the gospel and we go preach it to others so that people can know who Jesus is. We've got that clear, right?
[15:59] Now, what does it mean to live in the gospel? Because here in this verse that we're reading, verse number 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.
[16:14] as it is written, the just shall live by faith. And Paul's giving this introduction here in the first few verses of Romans chapter 1.
[16:29] And most would say verse number 16 is the key verse to understand everything that's coming. 16 and 17 go hand in hand there. And it's not just that we're saved by faith, but we also, as believers, we live by faith.
[16:47] And it's not just that when we think of the gospel, we understand that I can't do anything to be saved. I can't earn salvation. I need God's help.
[16:58] It's only by God's grace. Salvation is that way. And so we see throughout the book of Romans that sanctification is the same. we grow in Christ by grace.
[17:12] We grow in Christ because of Jesus. We grow in Christ not because we're great, but because He's great. And many times, like the air that we see in the book of Galatians, there's some Christians that start off well.
[17:29] They put their faith in Christ, but then quickly they move over. All right, in order to be a mature Christian, in order to live a life of holiness, separated from sin unto God, this is all on my shoulders.
[17:46] I've got to pull myself up by the bootstraps. I've got to make these New Year's resolutions. I'm the one that is responsible and I can do it. Sure, I needed Jesus to be saved, but from here on out, it's up to me.
[18:01] And many believers, now I'm, I was hard on this side for a minute and I'll be hard on this side. Many of us, we live our lives not thinking of the gospel and not realizing that the only way that I can apply what is being preached week in and week out from this pulpit and the only way that I can apply what I'm reading from God's Word day in and day out there at home, the only way is the Holy Spirit works in my heart and He's using His Scripture to lead me to steps of faith and obedience.
[18:34] the only way I can obey Him and move forward is with the strength that Jesus provides. It is through His grace. The gospel is interwoven into our entire Christian walk.
[18:49] We're not just saved by the message of the gospel, but we live and we're sanctified through this message of the gospel. All right, what does Romans have to say about it?
[19:00] There's so many passages I like to share, but we've got to get to the Lord's Supper here in just a moment and we have to get to Chile here soon and so we're going to skip a few chapters.
[19:11] Let's go to Romans chapter number 6. I just want to give you an example. Romans 6, the previous chapters are speaking about how we're all sinners, begins to talk about how there's justification that's offered there through Christ.
[19:27] We have peace with God through what Jesus does. We come to chapters 6, 7, and 8 and we see three chapters that talk about how do we apply this gospel truth in our life as we grow in Christ.
[19:41] And let's just read, we don't have time to dig down into all the truths that are going on here, but I think you're going to see very quickly that wait, this gospel message is pretty well interwoven with living for Jesus and applying the truths of the Bible to our daily life.
[19:59] Look what the Bible says at verse number 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
[20:13] Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death.
[20:28] That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Now, it's pretty interesting here how the Bible is speaking about Jesus over here on the side of sending the gospel.
[20:47] Jesus, sure, He was crucified, He was buried, He rose again from the dead. and we need to understand that. We need to place our faith in Christ to have that salvation that He freely offers to us.
[21:01] But, the Bible goes on to say, now as we start thinking about our walk with the Lord and living in this victorious Christian life and enjoying even what we heard this morning, living in the Spirit, following after the Spirit, obeying God's work that He's leading and stirring in our hearts, we do that through the gospel because in Christ we have died to the old man.
[21:30] In Christ we have been buried. In Christ we have risen again. We are new creatures and because I'm a new creature and because He has made me new and because of what He has done, I am able to, in Him, enjoy the victory that comes in Christ.
[21:49] In those times where I find myself a bit lost or a bit wayward or a bit discouraged or doubting the truths of God's Word, I come back to the gospel message.
[22:01] I remember some years ago I read an author who was speaking about this subject or writing about this subject and he said that we need to preach the gospel to ourselves as believers.
[22:14] I remember when I first read that I thought well that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard because preach the gospel, what am I going to lead myself to Christ again? Alright, open up a track and go through, realize you're a sinner, realize that, no, that's not what He was speaking about and that's not what we're talking about tonight.
[22:31] Oftentimes though, we need in those moments of discouragement, those moments of doubt, those moments where we feel a bit lost or we find ourselves moving away from the Lord and not enjoying that close relationship with Him.
[22:46] We need to preach the gospel to ourselves and remind ourselves I am what I am by the grace of God and only by His grace and I remember that He saved me and He's made me new and He is divine and I am the branch and in Christ I can enjoy all the blessings that come from Him because it's not in me, it's in Him and I need to draw closer to Him.
[23:14] As you go on through the book of Romans, Romans in chapter 12 teaches us to present our bodies to Jesus as a living sacrifice. There again, that idea of I'm dead and I present myself to you.
[23:30] Romans 14 talks about how to apply these principles to different cultural situations that come up and personal preference things.
[23:40] Romans 16 talks about a group of believers that are all together and they're working together and we all know it's not that easy to work together with other people because you're not perfect and they're not perfect and I'm not perfect and a lot of people that aren't perfect it's not it's not a perfect situation to work in, right?
[23:59] But through the gospel and remembering that we have an identity that's found in Him we can live together and follow the Lord and enjoy that relationship that we have in Him.
[24:14] You know, I heard a preacher recently and I think maybe a few of you heard this as well but he said productivity is yielding to the Holy Spirit in my life as I live out the gospel demonstrated in a life of good work.
[24:34] Some of you maybe you heard that as well. You know, as I read that this morning I pulled my cell phone out and I took a picture and I thought alright, this live out the gospel. Maybe you heard that and maybe you saw this morning forward in the gospel.
[24:49] What do we really how do we do this? Because I understand preaching the gospel to those that are unbelievers but how do we how do we live in the gospel? We remind ourselves daily that I'm only here where I am today because of Jesus and today I go to the Lord in prayer in the morning and I confess in prayer Lord, I need you today and we open up his word God, I want to know you more today and we take that first step and we say Lord, I need you to lead me throughout this day and I understand that all the blessings I have all the opportunities I have is only because of your grace and all the talents that I have and everything that you've allowed me to learn and all that you allow me to do it's only because of you and all the friends and the family and it's all because of you Lord I understand that as I go through this day it's not me but Christ who lives in me this is moving forward in the gospel and as we take the Lord's supper tonight and we remember who Jesus is and we remember all that he did for us and we're thankful and it might be a moment where we bow our heads and we confess we agree with the Lord about what the Bible says about our sin and our selfishness and we decide that we want to return to him now if you want things to be a little less abstract alright the gospel is the gospel of Christ so when we talk about moving forward in the gospel you can just as easily say moving forward in Jesus because the message of the gospel is really the message of a person and it's all about a personal relationship with Christ and those that are unbelievers we invite you to start that personal relationship with Christ putting your faith in him and those of us that are believers we all need to move forward in our relationship with Christ here Paul he says
[26:54] I'm not ashamed of the gospel I'm going to Rome to preach the gospel the gospel is the greatest thing that's ever happened to any of us and we need to be sharing that message it's a message for the unbelievers and a message for the believers today if you're here and you're an unbeliever or maybe you're hearing this message and you would say Jason I'm not sure if I were to die today if I would go to heaven I don't know if I have that personal relationship with Jesus we would like to take the Bible and to answer your question and there's the next step table there in the back that you can go to after the service those of us that are believers let's take time this evening as we're starting a new year we're looking at all the opportunities that are coming in 2024 the greatest thing we all can do is to decide I want to live in the gospel day in and day out dying to myself and my selfishness living for Jesus knowing that I'm a new creature in him and he has a new desire that he's put in my heart and I want to present myself as a living sacrifice to obey him and as I live in the gospel we need to take the gospel to those who haven't heard futureaaaa