Where To Find The Power Of God

A word here. We should be in Hebrews, but we're in Romans. The reason for that is, is I don't think I had adequate time this week to reflect on the text for this week enough to do justice to the text and to truly teach what I should. And I'm sorry about that. I pray that God will continue to let me go through Hebrews without those interruptions. that I've committed to not just throwing sermons together.

So we are going to take a detour today. Lord willing, we'll be back in Hebrews chapter 3, which is a break in the argument. He starts a new argument in Hebrews chapter 3 in terms of our steadfastness to the faith. And so if you want to prepare for next week, just read chapter 3 and half of chapter 4. Okay? Read it several times.

We want to look today at Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. A good reminder, I think, to us of the Gospel. You follow as I read the first 17 verses of Romans. Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit and the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers asking that somehow by God will I may now at least succeed at last succeed in coming to you For I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you that is that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.

I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented, in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

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. Let's pray. Father would you empower the preaching of your word today would you empower the reception of that word today that we may be encouraged by the gospel we pray that you would help us we need your spirit to teach us not only the text of scripture but to open up areas of our life that we need to examine we thank you for the living spirit of God who does your work in us.

We pray for that help now in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. When I was a boy, and, you know, there's a lot of these boys' magazines and stuff, and they'd have ads in them, and I remember one magazine, I can't remember which one, had an ad in the back about this bodybuilding thing that would give you big biceps and expand your chest and give you great shoulders.

And I thought, that's for me. And so I got all the money I could from my paper route and got it all together. And I sent off for this thing, and I got it in the mail. And excitedly, I opened the box, and it was just this handle with some of these weakly kind of elastic strips between them. Was I disappointed? Absolutely.

It was obvious that thing wasn't going to do anything. Would I recommend this to my friends? Absolutely not. Because I was not confident that this silly contraption was going to do anything for me or for my friends Well you know there are many today who have the same attitude towards the gospel They're not sure it can accomplish anything. They do not have confidence in it at all.

In fact, they have confidence in other things to accomplish great things. Now, that certainly is not the case with the Apostle Paul in these opening verses of the book of Romans. He is not ashamed of the gospel. That is, he has every confidence in its power and its ability. Let's look at these verses that we're going to look at today. 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. what is your attitude towards the gospel of Jesus how do you think of it now this book is a missionary letter when you read through the whole book particularly when you get near the end you find out that the apostle Paul was writing this letter to the Romans it's a missionary letter asking for support now when I when I go down to the to the mailbox the church mailbox here and I oftentimes bring back letters or I get emails from missionaries who are looking for support and they're saying we're going to Papua New Guinea we know your church is part of fire and so we're asking for support to go to Papua New Guinea well actually that's what this is it's Paul saying to the Romans I want to go west I want to go to Spain and I need some help so would you help me? Would you support me in my missionary endeavor?

Now, you know, if I got a missionary letter that big, I don't think I would read through the whole thing. But what he does here, it's fascinating, is he tells them what the message he has. In this letter asking for support, he says, here's what I'm asking you to support, this message. And in this book is this marvelous this exposition of the gospel in all of its different aspects.

That is, how it affects everything, how it affects our standing with God, with one another, how it affects our holiness how it affects our relationship to the government All of these things are part of what the gospel is about And so the theme is the gospel of God and his son the Lord Jesus Christ And then the compass of these two verses, he speaks of salvation, belief or faith, the relationship between Jews and Gentiles, all of them treated by the gospel. But as he introduces this theme, you have to ask yourself the question, what is your attitude towards the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, first of all, basically he's saying you should have confidence in the gospel.

What is the gospel? What is the gospel? Well, we just read a basic summary of it. Verse 1, it's the good news that comes from God. Verse 2, it fulfills the promise of God found in the Old Testament. It's nothing new.

It's always been anticipated. Now it's here. The center of that gospel is the revelation of God's Son, Jesus Christ, who is both Messiah, descended from David, and the powerful Son of God, who, like his Father, is Lord, declared by his resurrection through the power of the Spirit. This gospel changes people from all kinds of backgrounds and cultures as they believe it, producing obedience to all that God commands. verse 5, that it brings about the obedience of faith, where he says the obedience, that is the obedience response of faith, which then produces obedience to all that God commands.

It produces people, according to verses 6 and 7, that are set apart for and belong to Jesus Christ. And it is this gospel that finds expression and explanation in the next 15 chapters. Of that gospel, he says, you need not be ashamed. Verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. Now he's already expressed eagerness to preach the gospel in Rome, and he confidently assumes that he's going to have a harvest from it.

If you look up at verse 15, he says, so I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. Why? Verse 13, he indicated that earlier. I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you, but thus far have been prevented in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. It's fascinating about that because he believes the gospel is powerful enough to bring about a... a harvest not only among unbelievers but among believers as well.

The gospel says things to us as well, not just to unbelievers but to us. Now note carefully what he says here and I want you to pay careful attention here. He is not saying, I am not ashamed to share the gospel, as if he was addressing that common fear that we all have of sharing the gospel. That's not what he's saying here. he's not saying, I'm ashamed so I don't share the gospel.

Or, I don't want you to be ashamed of sharing the gospel. That isn't the point. That's not the point at all. He asserts that the gospel itself does not provide grounds for shame. He asserts that when he proclaims the gospel, there is no power that's superior to it, that keeps it from accomplishing its ends. It does not fail.

He proclaims it and people are changed radically. People are changed radically. The sinfulness of heart and life, the pressure of family and culture, the sophisticated wisdom of the world all prove powerless when the gospel operates and produces the life-changing force that it has. In other words, he does not walk away shame-faced because the gospel fails to accomplish what God has sent it out to accomplish.

In other words, what he's saying here is, the gospel is not like that great machine, that great bodybuilder that I got. It is powerful. It accomplishes what God sets it out to do, sets it to do. In other words, he's not saying here, don't be ashamed of sharing the gospel. He's saying the gospel is so powerful, you don't have to be ashamed of it. It'll accomplish what God intends it to accomplish.

Now, you may be tempted to shame with regard to the gospel. You have a friend whose marriage is falling apart, and he and his wife live selfish, self-centered lives, and they've even seen the professional at Marion Area Counseling Center, and they're moving quickly to divorce. Oh, sure, you can share the gospel with them, but what's that going to do?

Your co-worker is mired in the tangly, tenacious web of pornography and cannot get free. Oh sure you can share the gospel but this is really serious stuff You have a teacher who brilliant but he needs to know the Lord of glory in a saving way Oh yeah, I suppose you could share the gospel with him, but he's really smart. What could you possibly say that would convince him?

You have a brother in Christ who struggles with anxiety, and his relationship with his wife is cold and lacks love and concern, and he's confided that in you. The gospel? What good is that going to do? Only listen to what Paul says in Colossians 1.28. Him we proclaim, Christ we proclaim, counseling everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Even when we counsel one another, we are proclaiming Christ. So as you call on other believers to rest in his forgiveness, believe his promises, obey his commands, fix their hopes on him. You see, that's the kind of shame he's talking about. we don't believe the gospel can do anything. So don't be ashamed of the gospel. It can accomplish great things. This kind of shame is much more common than the plain fear of sharing the gospel.

Most of us would say we're afraid to share the gospel. Most of us would admit to that. But how many more of us entertain the notion that the gospel really can't accomplish that much? That's what's being ashamed of the gospel. Several, several years ago, Jim Dobson, I don't know if anybody remembers Jim Dobson, he was the darling of the evangelical world but he interviewed Bundy, I can't remember the guy's first name, he was a serial killer an unbelievable serial killer right, and towards near the end of Bundy's life, he was in prison for life he came to know Christ and there were lots of people And Dobson interviewed him.

And lots of people said, oh, yeah, right. Sure. He's just playing you. Oh, really? The gospel can't even change someone like that. Recently, in fact, it just came to my mind, I was speaking here, how many of you remember Son of Sam?

If you're under 60 years old, you might not remember Son of Sam. He was this guy, Berkowitz was his name, who was walking around New York City. And this is when these kind of things were really unusual. He was walking around the city shooting couples who would be in the park or in their car or something He would just shoot these people And I mean the nation was in an uproar New York City was about locked down not for a disease but because this guy was on the loose and people were terrified.

New York City was just unbelievable. You wouldn't believe what it was like then. And they found him. They arrested him. He was convicted. He's serving a life sentence in prison.

I read an interview with him. Was it World Magazine? World Magazine and the guy's been changed. In fact he says I don't expect to get out. I'll take whatever God gives me. But the Lord Jesus is my Lord.

And there are people who say yeah right. Can the gospel change someone like that? You see that's the shame he's talking about. The idea that we don't believe the gospel can do what it says. Just like that bodybuilding thing. I don't believe it's not going to accomplish anything.

That's the shame he's talking about. So in other words, he's saying, have confidence in the gospel. Don't misplace your confidence. You do not save people through your eloquence. You do not save people through your cleverness or your intelligence or your ability to learn opposing views or your debating skills. You don't win anybody by that.

The gospel doesn't need that. The gospel can save without your help. Even if you have trouble, listen, even if you have trouble sharing the gospel verbally, we all struggle with that. Even if you have trouble sharing the gospel verbally, you can still hand someone a tract. You can still say something like, hey, I'll tell you what, read the gospel of John.

When you go to the Bible, you see it's divided in two parts, Old Testament, New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. It's the fourth book in the second half. Read that. You can at least do that much. You can do that.

You know how many people have been saved by reading the gospel? Right? Give them a track. Tell them to read the gospel. Tell them, hey, I'll talk about it with you next week after you're done reading it. You can do something.

The gospel has the power to change people. But why? Why should you have such confidence? You can have confidence in the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation It is the power of God for salvation How do you think of the gospel Is it just one more idea and one more competitor in the marketplace of ideas Do we merely talk about it in church because we're a gospel preaching church?

Do we proclaim and share the gospel, hoping that we may convince someone else of its truth? Listen, God says the gospel is, in fact, the power of God for salvation. It itself is the power of God for salvation. You know, when our kids were in 7th and 8th grade, when we homeschooled them for a couple of years, we used a history textbook by Joy Hackham called The History of Us, U.S.

Capital, History of Us. It was the history of the United States. By the way, great, great set of books. But anyway, the first chapter is called History, Why? and she says this, when we read about the mistakes people made in the past, we can try not to make them ourselves. Nations and people who don't study history sometimes repeat mistakes. Okay, that's good.

Another place she says, learning about our country's history will make you understand what it means to be an American. Now, is the author stating there that if you read these books, you will understand and you won't make any more mistakes? Is that what she's saying? No, she hopes that happens. She hopes that her writings will help you not make mistakes.

I mean, if it was otherwise, if we could only get these books into people's hands, then everybody would understand what it means to be an American, and our problems would be solved, right? But that book doesn't have that power. Just reading the history isn't going to accomplish that purpose. She hopes that happens, but there's no guarantees. But that's not the case with the Gospel.

That's not the case with the Gospel. It doesn't merely tell the story of Jesus hoping for repentance and faith. What it does, it tells the story of Jesus and produces repentance and faith. It actually produces it. The gospel is powerful. One biblical scholar that was real popular when I was in seminary was a Lutheran scholar by the name of Lenski.

He's from the 19th century. He said this, every gospel imperative is full of the divine power of grace to affect what it demands. It calls you to faith and it produces that faith. It is the power of God. It is the power of God. You know, when I get up here to preach, I'll be honest with you.

I mean, I work hard. I try to put it in a way that you understand. I try to put it in an organized way so you can follow it. But I am under no illusions. I'm under no illusions. It's the Word of God that, it's the Gospel that produces change in you, not me.

I'm not that good. I'm not that eloquent. I, you know. It's the gospel that does it, not me. Not me. And so when I get up here, I always have confidence.

Before I get up here, I pray up a storm. I'm on the front pew and I'm praying my heart out in the last song. Because I'm saying, God, I can't do this. Only you can accomplish what you want to accomplish. I know that even as I'm talking now, only the gospel can do what God says it can do I'm just a water boy I'm just carrying it to you it is the gospel itself that has that power it's a living dynamic message always remember what Spurgeon said the gospel is like a lion all you have to do is unleash it all you have to do is let it out of its cage that's it it is the power for salvation it saves you from the penalty of your sin it pronounces god's verdict of acquittal it transforms you into obedient children of the king now he says the gospel is god's power for salvation of everyone who believes that is to say the gospel doesn't work on everyone.

Okay? If that were the case, we could all just go out here today and just read it. Read the book of Romans everywhere we went and everybody would just fall into place, right? But it's the power of God for salvation to those who believe. It produces that belief, but that belief is necessary. This salvation has no reality apart from faith.

Wherever there is faith, their God's omnipotence becomes operative. It operates in all who believe. But please notice that it operates in everyone who believes. That is to say it isn dependent on your level of education to believe It not dependent on the recipients It's not dependent on that person's education. It's not dependent on his race. It's not dependent on anything like that.

It's not dependent on everyone who believes. no matter where they are in the societal structure, it is the power of salvation. You believe and that power reaches to you wherever and whomever you are. It saves you and it changes you. No matter what you are, no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done. Notice, it reaches Jew and Gentile. It has primary relevance to the Jews, he says.

Why? Because the foundation for the full revelation of the gospel was laid in Israel. God chose the Jews from the very beginning to be the recipient of his word. He could have chosen anybody. He could have chosen any nation in the world to do that. But instead he chose one man, Abraham.

Why? Only God knows. chose him to be the progenitor of this nation through whom he would give his word. In chapter 2 of this book, the Apostle Paul says, is there an advantage to being a Jew? Yeah, he says. You had all the oracles of God. You had the temple.

You had all of these things. You had the revelation of the one true God given to you. And that's the foundation for this gospel message going out to everyone. You know, it runs contrary to the typical Jewish view today that the gospel is for the goyim. that's us by the way who aren't Jews, the goyim, the Gentiles, the dogs. It's a Gentile religion when in fact it is not.

It is not. But having said that, God always intended the gospel message to go out to all nations. Israel was the conduit that the message came through, but it was supposed to go to all the nations. that was God's tension all the time. Starts with Israel. Starts with the Jews, to the Jew first, and then to the rest of the world. Turn over to Isaiah 42.

Isaiah 42 Look at these first few verses of Isaiah 42 Behold my servant whom I uphold my chosen in whom my soul delights I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. he will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law. You see what he's saying there? God always intended for the gospel, for his servant to be proclaimed among the nations, even though it goes to the Jew first. It always was intended to go to the nations. to operate powerfully in all the nations.

So how do you see the gospel? Do you believe that it is the power of God for salvation or not? In one book, The Gospel Primer, the author says, you can look for God's power in all kinds of places. You know, but if you really want to see God's power, it's in the gospel. It's in the gospel. you want to see God do something powerful watch what he does with the gospel dear people you've seen it I've seen it I've seen people and I'm looking at some of you right now I know people that have lived godless lives and they heard the gospel and they changed radically I've heard people say to me, you know, this book, I couldn't care less for it.

It's just puzzling, boring, but now I can't get enough of it. How do you account for that? It's the power of the gospel. It's the power of the gospel that changes people. Here's the last point he makes. First he says, have confidence because the gospel is powerful. you have confidence because powerful for salvation have confidence because it reveals god's righteousness it reveals god righteousness verse 17 for in it the righteousness of god is revealed from faith for faith as it is written the righteous shall live by faith Now note the connection here How is it that the gospel is the power of God Because in that gospel a righteousness of God is revealed.

That's where the power comes. Now don't misunderstand revealed here. He's not saying that the gospel makes God's attribute of righteous clear for everyone to see. That isn't exactly what he's saying. Okay? That's a true statement.

But that's not what he's saying here. He means that God reveals his righteousness in action and in operation. He uses the same term in verse 18, if you drop down to the next verse. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Now you know when you see that in verse 18, you know the wrath of God is finding expression.

And then he goes on to talk about what the wrath of God looks like. Here's what it looks like. Here's what the wrath of God looks like. He gives them over to whatever they want. That's the anger of God being expressed. You want to go that way?

Fine. I'm going to let you go. That's his wrath. But he's saying in verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. it isn't that people say oh God's angry it's they actually see that anger happening suppose someone asked you about your neighbor and you responded well he's a man of integrity well what do you mean by that what you mean is that you know he's a man of integrity because he pays his bills on time because he accidentally dented your car and you didn't know who did it he came over and told you he was the guy who did it right he never gossips about his neighbors you say he's a man of integrity why because you've seen it displayed it actually does something right so the gospel is powerful because in the gospel the righteousness of god is actively and dynamically brought to bear upon sinful human beings now this is an old testament theme let's look at it real quickly We saw it, well let's look at Psalm 35 first.

Psalm 35. We're going to look at a couple of Psalms here. So you can see how the righteousness of God is not just an attribute of Him, but it actually finds expression. Psalm 35, 27 and 28. Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, Great is the Lord who delights in the welfare of his servant. Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.

The vindication that God brings, the well-being he accomplishes, David calls that God's righteousness. He's vindicated me. He's done something. His righteousness is showed because he showed I. He vindicated me. Psalm 71.

This was our call to worship this morning. Psalm 71, verses 15 through 17. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge. With the mighty deeds of the Lord God, I will come, I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone. O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

Notice that righteousness here is parallel with his deeds. The psalmist equates righteousness with salvation here, the rescue from his enemies. That it's God's mighty acts, and he calls that his righteousness. Okay? Isaiah 51. You heard that earlier in the Old Testament reading.

Isaiah 51 verse 4. Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation. For a law will go out for me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. My righteousness draws near My salvation has gone out You see the parallel there Righteousness and salvation And my arms will judge the peoples The coastlands hope for me and for my arm they will wait.

Equating his power now with his righteousness. Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look at the earth beneath. For the heavens vanish like smoke. The earth will wear out like a garment. They who dwell in it will die in like manner. but my salvation will be forever and my righteousness will never be dismayed again there's the parallel righteousness and salvation listen to me you who know righteousness the people in whose heart is my law fear not the reproach of them nor be dismayed at their revilings for the moth will eat them up like a garment and the worm will eat them up like wool but my righteousness will be forever and my salvation to all generations God's righteousness is not merely an attribute of God it is an activity of God it is the way he acts and just as the old testament reveals God's mighty acts of rescuing his people so the gospel reveals that is the gospel brings into operation the mighty power of God to bring people into a right relationship with him the gospel brings that righteousness into operation where God's righteousness is actually acting now all through the gospel.

All through the gospel. It's powerful that way. But again, note, it operates through faith. It's revealed from faith. For faith as is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Here he quotes Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4.

He's saying this is the way God's always operated. It is faith and nothing but faith There no earning it You can persuade God righteousness to act on your behalf You can bribe Him You can earn it You can go through some kind of ritual It is by faith. That's it. Just trust. Just trust. That power comes to those who trust God to work.

You can be confident in that message because that's the way God's always worked. He's always worked that way. faith is the quality of absolute reliance on god without looking anywhere else reliance completely on god the power of god is at work the righteousness of god comes into play where the gospel goes so what do you think of the gospel now I would hope that and again I pray this all the time not just for you but for me when you hear a sermon when you hear God's word what difference is it going to make what difference is it going to make here's my hope for you this week as God gives you opportunity you share the gospel verbally you share it with written word, you do something because you believe that the gospel can change people. It is the power of God.

We're living in a culture right now that believes the answer is found in out there. Alright? It that group that oppressing us Get rid of that group and everything will be fine It this psychological disorder that causing that Medicate it and everything will be fine Right It ignorance out there that causing all these problems. Get everybody an education and everything will be fine.

And guess what? All's we're doing is finding scapegoats. There's only one power that can change people's hearts and it is the power of God. And how is it unleashed in people? It is unleashed by the gospel. It is the gospel that is the power of God.

It is the gospel that can turn everything upside down. Well, turn it the way it ought to be. Because it is the power of God. I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's powerful. how's that going to find expression in your life this week father thank you for your word would you help us now to really think this through help us i pray that your spirit would would expose areas of our life where we where we believe or where we do not believe the gospel is powerful.

Father, we, as we confessed earlier in the service, we look for different messages and different methods. Would you please help us to believe, to have confidence in the power of the gospel and to unleash its power. Help us, Father, to be faithful ministers of the Gospel. In Jesus' name, Amen.