What is the Gospel?

I invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn with me over to the book of Romans.

We're going to be in Romans chapter 1. We're going to begin in verse 1, work our way through verse 17.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

So Romans chapter 1, verses 1 through 17.

Romans 1:1–17

And this morning, we are going to ask a rather simplistic question of Scripture.

And that question is, what is the Gospel?

What is the Gospel? I mean, is the Gospel simply walking down an aisle, shaking a pastor's hand, or saying a sinner's prayer,

and then never, ever allowing it to transform you?

This morning, we're going to look at Romans chapter 1, verses 1 through 17.

Romans 1:1–17

And these verses are going to help us answer this question, what is the Gospel?

I love the way the Apostle Paul concisely answers this question in verses 16 and 17.

Look at it with me. It's going to be up on the screen.

He says,

Would you pray with me?

Father, this is your Word, and we are thankful this morning that we can come together to worship you here in this place.

Your Word is holy. It is without error.

It is infallible, and it is authoritative for our lives.

And so, Father, this morning we come to worship you and to be changed.

We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Amen.

My wife, Karen, she loves to buy large toys for our children.

And children, especially my kids, they love to receive large toys, right?

They love playing with these things.

And if you come over to our house, you're going to notice all over the place large toys.

Because large toys have large price tags, and you don't ever want to throw them away.

So they just kind of pile up in the house.

And so we've got large toys in the bedrooms.

We've got large toys in the garage.

We've got a large toy called a trampoline out in the backyard.

Sometimes these large toys kind of trickle out onto the back patio, but you kind of get my drift.

They're large toys with large price tags.

And large toys come with large instruction manuals on how to put these things together.

About four and a half years ago on Christmas, my wife convinced my parents to buy our daughter a dollhouse.

But not just any old kind of dollhouse.

This dollhouse was this tall.

It is this wide, and it came in a box that narrow.

And so this box, which weighed about 100 pounds, we couldn't just put this dollhouse together before Christmas and then hide it.

I mean, where are you going to hide a dollhouse that's this tall and this wide?

And so that required me and my dad to kind of put this thing together on Christmas Eve after we put the kids to bed.

And so we began putting this big old dollhouse together in the room over the garage, the bonus room, beginning around 830 at night.

And it took us almost five hours.

My dad and I, we did not kill each other because sometimes that's what fathers and sons do when they work together on projects.

They kill each other.

But we came out of the room unscathed.

We got this thing together.

My dad and I, man, we were proud of ourselves.

Because this wasn't just any old dollhouse.

I mean, every single thing in the dollhouse had to be put together.

Not just the dollhouse, but the furniture in the dollhouse.

I mean, it had toilets.

It had appliances, washers, dryers, you name it.

Carpet.

It was three stories high, so it had steps.

Everything had to be put together according to the instruction manual.

So my dad and I, we got this thing put together and we were so proud of ourselves.

And we've got to take this thing downstairs now and put it under the Christmas tree.

But one thing we failed to do was to measure just how wide the dollhouse was going to be after we got it put together.

And the dollhouse ended up being about that much wider than the door of our bonus room.

And so my dad and I proceeded to take the door off the hinges and get us a little bit more room because we weren't taking this thing apart.

So we got it to the door and, like I said, by this time, now that we've got the door down, we've got about this much room.

Between the edge of the roof, which is plastic, and the door jam itself.

And so we just mashed that thing through the door.

It did nothing to the dollhouse.

The dollhouse was completely okay.

But the door jam, on the other hand, yeah, it got scratched up pretty bad.

And so we got this big old dollhouse downstairs.

We put it next to the Christmas tree.

Christmas Day comes and down comes Ava.

Michael was just an itty-bitty thing at this point.

Ava comes down and she sees this dollhouse and, man, she's excited.

And she plays with this dollhouse all day long.

The next day, she invites her friends over.

Her friends come over and they play with the dollhouse all day long.

And then the next day, on the 27th, she plays with the dollhouse again, but not all day long.

Just maybe, you know, three, four hours.

Then the next day, she plays with it for about another hour, maybe two.

The day after that, about 30 minutes.

The day after that, about 15 minutes.

And then the day after that, New Year's.

Well, it didn't get played with very much after that.

That dollhouse, four and a half years later, is now sitting in our house in the upstairs hallway next to the laundry room where we throw our dirty laundry on top of it every now and then.

We don't want to throw it away.

It costs a lot of money.

It took a lot of time putting it together.

And it's just sitting there right now.

Now, I tell you that to say this.

Big toys, large toys, have large instruction manuals.

This morning, we are going to be looking at the Book of Romans.

And the Book of Romans is much like a large instruction manual.

It is one of the most systematic of Paul's letters.

It reads almost like a theology textbook, if you will.

Now, the Book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul.

He wrote it to the church at Rome.

And I know that sounds very obvious.

I mean, the book is called Romans.

But it's important as we work our way through these 17 verses that we understand that Paul's audience here are Christians.

He's writing to the church.

They know Christ.

And so he's writing to them, to the church in Rome.

Also, during this time in history, if you know anything about secular history, the whole Mediterranean world was under what was called the Roman Empire.

They were under the thumb of the Roman Empire.

And obviously, the capital of the Roman Empire was none other than Rome.

And so I want you this morning to kind of view the Roman Empire, to view Rome itself as a Washington, D.C.

Because that's essentially what it was.

Right?

Every single vice known to mankind could be found in Rome.

Alcohol, drugs, sexual promiscuity, you name it, it was there.

Rome was religiously diverse, culturally diverse.

It was a melting pot, much like Washington, D.C. is today.

And so Paul is writing to this church, and it's important for us to understand the culture.

One secular historian wrote this about Rome.

He said, quote, Rome was a severely overcrowded, loud, and smelly city.

A place that provided every virtue and vice known to mankind.

The church at Rome came out of this environment.

The people that made up the church in Rome came out of this environment.

And since they came out of this environment, naturally, there were questions.

And one of those questions is, what is the gospel?

And so this morning, what we're going to do is we're going to look at these 17 verses,

and we are going to pull out of it three insights into what the gospel truly is.

Number one, the gospel was promised in the Old Testament.

The gospel was promised in the Old Testament.

Look what Paul says here, verses 1 through 7.

He says,

Pete says,

He 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 the nations,

including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

To all of 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.

Now we could literally take the next three weeks and go over these seven verses,

but for the sake of time, we're going to look primarily at verse 2 because that's what we're concerned with.

The gospel being promised in the Old Testament, and that's exactly what Paul says here.

He says, look at verse 2 again, he says that the gospel was promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

In other words, before the New Testament was written, before Jesus Christ was born,

the Father had already promised that a Messiah was coming.

And He promised, it said, through His prophets, the authors, if you will, of the Old Testament,

He promised through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures.

Now, what scriptures is He referring to?

Well, we know the authors are the prophets, but also Romans wasn't written until 57 AD.

It's a rather early New Testament book.

And so the gospel that He's proclaiming here is not Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The book of Romans was written before that.

The gospel He's referring to here, the place that it was proclaimed and promised,

is none other than the Old Testament.

The gospel, ladies and gentlemen, is not an afterthought of God.

It's not like Genesis chapter 3 happened, and then God was like,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

oh, I've got to do something about this.

The gospel was already promised.

Matter of fact, when original sin entered into the world,

when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden,

right after they sinned, the gospel is proclaimed.

Genesis 3.15, God is talking to the serpent, otherwise known as Satan,

and He says to the serpent,

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

In other words, God is promising that someone's coming,

right there in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Someone is coming who is going to do what?

He's going to crush the head of the serpent.

And as we make our way through redemptive history in the Old Testament,

all the way up into the New Testament,

it is slowly revealed to us that this Messiah who is coming to crush the head of the serpent

in Genesis chapter 3.15,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

is none other than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And so the gospel is not an afterthought.

The gospel was promised in the Old Testament.

It's kind of like this, talking about promises.

We're on to now the summer days where the kids are out of school,

and people like my wife who work for the school, they're out of school.

They get to stay home with the kids.

And that's awesome.

Until about late June, early July,

where let's just be honest,

we're ready for them to go back to school.

And Karen is there with the kids,

and sometimes, sometimes,

children test the limits.

They test the limits of their mama.

Let me tell you a very exaggerated story here.

I'll come home from work one afternoon,

around 4.30, 5 o'clock,

and I'll pull up into the driveway,

and everything we own

is out on the front lawn.

Everything we own is out on the front lawn.

And there's our kids running around,

yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, just having a good old time.

And I walk into the house,

and there's my wife sitting on the only piece of furniture left in the whole house,

on this chair,

with her hand on her head like this.

And I look at her,

and I say,

sweetheart, what is going on?

And she says,

I only turned my back on the kids for one minute.

One minute is all it took,

and they got everything we own out onto the front lawn.

My mom called,

and I took the phone call.

I should have never done it.

And then I said this,

and gentlemen,

don't ever say this to your wife in this situation,

because you will sleep on the couch that night.

I said,

why does this happen

when it's only you

with the kids?

I'm not there?

Why does this not happen when I'm at home?

Yeah, wrong thing.

I learned very early on as a dad,

that's the wrong thing to say to your wife

after she's been home with the kids

for the last eight to ten hours.

And so,

in all seriousness,

when things start going south,

my wife will often make a promise to our children.

And the promise will go something like this.

You wait until your daddy gets home.

Right?

You wait until your daddy gets home.

Everyone in here,

if you've tested the limits of mama,

you have heard those words.

You wait until your daddy gets home,

and you know mom's not playing.

You know that's a promise

that you can take to the bank,

that when daddy gets home,

yeah,

it's all like Donkey Kong.

It's going to get real,

real fast.

And so Karen will say to the kids,

and she'll make that promise,

you wait until your daddy gets home,

because my kids know daddy don't play.

Promises mean something.

Now,

people break promises, unfortunately.

Your friends will break promises.

Family members will break promises.

Sometimes parents,

pastors will break promises.

But there is one person

that never, ever, ever

breaks his promise.

And that's God.

God never breaks his promises.

And one of the promises we see here

in Romans chapter 1

Romans 1 · chapter mention

is the promise of the gospel

that is rooted in the Old Testament.

The gospel was promised in the Old Testament.

Number two,

the gospel is a way of life.

The gospel is a way of life.

Look at verses 8 through 15.

First,

and I love the way he says first,

he's just given us seven verses

of incredibly dense material.

And then he says,

okay,

now I'm going to say what I meant to say.

He's like a typical preacher.

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

in the gospel of his son

that without ceasing,

I mention you always in my prayers,

asking that somehow by God's will,

I may now at last succeed

in coming to you.

For I long to see you

that I may impart to you

a spiritual gift to strengthen you.

That is,

that we may be mutually encouraged

by each other's faith,

both yours and mine.

I do not want you

to be unaware, 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 to barbarians,

both to the wise and to the foolish,

so I am eager

to preach the gospel

to you also

who is in Rome.

The gospel

is not something

you just simply

believe to be historically true.

I say often to our youth

that just because you say

you believe something to be true

doesn't mean

you are that

which you believe.

For example,

I believe Hitler lived,

it doesn't make me a Nazi.

I believe Stalin lived,

and that does not make me

a communist.

And so,

just merely affirming

the historical facts

of something you say

you believe

doesn't make you

a follower

of that thing

that you believe.

I say that because

I want you to look again

at verse 8.

Paul says to the Romans,

to the Christians

at Rome,

he says,

your faith

is proclaimed

in all of the world.

I want you to think

about the world

at this point.

It's the Mediterranean world.

These people are located

in Rome.

Their faith is known

all over

the Mediterranean world.

It's 57 AD.

There are no phones.

There's no internet.

There's no radio.

So how did the whole

known world

at that period of time

know how big

the faith was

of those Christians

in Rome?

I'll tell you how.

Word to mouth.

Word to mouth.

They believed in Christ.

They believed the gospel.

But they didn't just

believe it.

It impacted their lives,

and it impacted

their lives so much

that people saw

a difference in them.

And that reputation

spread all over

the Mediterranean world.

And so when Paul

is talking about

faith here,

he's not referring

to just that

initial trust in Christ

that brings about

salvation.

He's talking about

the persevering trust

that brings about

spiritual strength

and growth

which is ongoing.

And so Paul moves on

into verse 12,

and he wants to be,

he says,

mutually encouraged

by each other's faith

both yours and mine.

Paul,

the Apostle Paul,

knew that it was

important to be

plugged into a local church.

He knew it was

important to be

worshiping,

to be fellowshipping

with a body

of believers.

I want you to think

about who Paul is

for just a second.

Paul wrote 13 books

of the New Testament.

He's the greatest

missionary this world

has ever seen.

He has received

direct revelation

from Jesus,

but yet he knows

it's important

to be involved

in the life

of the church.

He wasn't someone

that just showed up

once or twice a month

on Sundays

when he had the time.

I would argue

that Paul

was instrumental

in the churches

that he was involved in.

It was important

to him

to be involved,

and so I ask this

of you and of I.

If the Apostle Paul,

13 books of the New Testament,

greatest missionary,

direct revelation

from God,

if the Apostle Paul

knew it was important

to be plugged

into the local church

and to be involved,

how much more

you and I?

And so Paul

wants to be encouraged

by each other's faith

and he goes on

to say,

I am eager

to preach

the gospel

to you

who are at Rome.

Now when I was

preparing for this message,

the first question

I had when I read that,

I was like,

why does Paul

want to preach

the gospel

to the Christians

in Rome

when their faith

is already so big

that the whole

Mediterranean world

knows about it?

Here's the answer.

The gospel

is not just something

we say we believe.

It's not just

affirming

a historical fact

or saying

a sinner's prayer.

Yes,

the gospel

is that initial

trust in Christ

that brings about

salvation,

but when we

receive the gospel,

when we trust in Christ

truly as our Lord

and our Savior,

it impacts

our lives.

The gospel

is a way

of life.

Now,

like any good

speaker,

you always want

to illustrate

the point

you're trying

to make.

And the point

we're trying

to make

this morning

is that the gospel

is a way

of life.

And so what I'm

going to do

is I'm going

to give you

an illustration

that just FYI,

it's going to

break down,

but I think

we can kind

of put the pieces

together and

understand it.

The gospel

is a way

of life

in the same

way that being

an athlete

is a way

of life.

For example,

to become an

athlete,

you've got to

try out for the

team.

You make the

team,

you become an

athlete.

athlete,

right?

However,

if you don't

show up to

the practices,

if you don't

put on the

uniform,

if you don't

come to the

games,

if you're not

a team player,

if all you

ever do is

make the team

and earn the

title athlete

and never do

anything else,

are you really

an athlete?

No.

What about

like a student?

The gospel

is a way

of life

in the same

way that being

a student

is a way

of life.

To become

a student,

you register

for classes.

You register

for classes,

you're now

a student.

But,

if you never

show up to

class,

you never

do the

work,

you fail

everything

and you

drop out,

are you

really a

student?

And more

importantly,

for high

school students,

it's even

more a way

of life.

They go to

proms,

they've got

homecoming,

they go to

football games,

they've got

these different

organizations that

they're a part

of,

it's even

more of a

way of life.

If all you

do is go to

Pickens High

School,

register for

classes and

never show up

ever again,

are you really

a student?

No.

Because when

you're a student,

it's a way of

life.

When you're an

athlete, it's a

way of life.

The gospel is a

way of life.

It transforms

us.

We come to

faith in Christ,

Christ.

We exercise the

spiritual gifts

that God has

given us in

his church.

We are

involved in

the church.

We worship

in the church.

We fellowship

with one

another.

We serve

with one

another.

We go on

mission trips

with one

another.

Youth go to

camp with

one another.

It's a way

of life.

That's what

the gospel

is.

So the

gospel is

rooted in the

Old Testament.

The gospel is

a way of

life.

And then

finally,

the one point

that I think

everyone in here

is familiar

with is that

the gospel

is the power

of God

for salvation.

It's the

gospel that

saves us.

Verses 16

and 17,

Paul says,

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.

As we come

to a close

in this

message,

I want to

leave you

with an

encouraging

word.

That

encouraging

word is,

the gospel

will bring

you persecution.

Praise the

Lord.

Right?

The gospel

will bring

you persecution.

All over

this world,

even today,

people are

beaten and

murdered for

their faith.

Now,

we don't have

that problem

necessarily here

in our country,

but I will

let you know

you will be

persecuted for

your faith.

Why?

Because the

gospel is a

way of life.

It alters

the way you

think.

Your worldview

will be different

than other

people's worldviews.

Your priorities

will be different

than other

people's priorities.

And every now

and then,

people might

look at you

and think,

man,

you're a little

weird.

Right?

The gospel

will bring you

persecution.

And so,

Paul says,

in light of

that,

in verse 16,

he says,

I'm not ashamed

of the gospel.

In other words,

I don't care what

kind of persecution

comes my way.

And think again

about who Paul

is.

Paul was locked

up,

beaten,

often near death.

He was flogged,

stoned,

shipwrecked,

and he was always

looking over his

back because his

countrymen wanted

to kill him,

and the Roman

government wanted

to arrest him

and execute

them,

which they

ultimately did.

And Paul says,

in light of all

of that,

I don't care.

I don't care

what's going to

come my way.

I am not ashamed

of the gospel.

Why?

Tells us right

here in this

passage.

Because it's the

power of God

for salvation

to everyone

who believes.

First Baptist,

there is no

greater decision

that you will

ever make

than who

is Jesus

Christ.

Your career

plans,

your college

plans,

your family

plans,

our vacation

plans,

now that we're

in the summer,

don't matter

at all

compared to

who is

Jesus Christ.

It is the

greatest decision

that you

will ever

make.

Jesus Christ,

God in the

flesh,

came to this

earth and

lived 33

years without

sin,

completely

fulfilling the

law.

He went to

the cross

willingly and

died.

He was buried.

Three days

later,

He rose from

the dead.

dead.

And here's

where it

gets real.

Not only

did He

just raise

from the

dead,

but He

was seen

by not

just one

person,

not even

by His

eleven

remaining

disciples.

He was

seen by

hundreds,

hundreds of

people over

the period

of forty

days.

He ascended

back to

heaven.

He is

seated at

the right

hand of

the Father.

You know

what He's

doing right

now?

He's

praying for

you.

He's

praying for

me.

The greatest

decision you

will ever

make is

who is

Jesus.

The gospel

was promised

way back in

the Old

Testament.

It's a

promise rooted

in the Old

Testament.

the gospel

is a way

of life

and it's

the gospel

that brings

about

salvation.

Would you

pray with

me?

Heavenly

Father, we

come before

you this

morning humbled

for what

you have

done for

us.

None of

us in

this room

are worthy

of what

you have

done for

us.

So this

morning,

Lord, we

come before

you.

We're

thankful for

the gospel.

We're

thankful for

your grace,

your love,

your goodness.

And Lord,

there be

somebody in

this room

this morning

that does

not know

Christ.

It is my

prayer this

morning that

this would

be the day

of repentance,

the day of

faith, that

they would

trust in

Jesus as

their Lord

and their

Savior.

Father, I

pray as we

begin these

summertime

months that

we are

reminded the

gospel is

just not

simply believing

a series

of facts.

The gospel

impacts our

lives.

May we

leave here

reflecting that

in this

community,

in the

people that

we come

into contact

with each

and every

day.

We pray

this in

Jesus'

name.

Amen.

pour

an

それ

into

the

future.