Sermon: Romans Part 5 (Pastor Brian Fuller - Romans 1:15-20)

Hi, and welcome to the Sermon Podcast of First Baptist Church Woodlawn in Woodlawn,

Illinois. I'm Senior Pastor Brian Fuller, and it is our desire to

impact the world with the Gospel of Jesus. We do so through small group

ministry, personal testimony, as well as corporate gatherings. You can find us

on Facebook, YouTube, and our website Fbcwoodlawn dot org. Join us now

as we hear from God's word, I think if kids are following finding money

of their Easter eggs, that we need to have an Easter egg hunt for

adults. Amen. All right, now, we'll be first in line.

I'm telling you before we go any further, before I get into the sermon,

when I show you a video, we'll show it first, and I'll

talk about the Southern Baptists have two major thrust throughout the year for missions,

and one of them is a Lotty Moon Christmas offering that goes towards international missions.

And then at Easter time we have the Anti Armstrong offering that goes towards

North American missions. And so there is information out in the hallway, there's

brochures, and then there's envelopes that you can put an offering in for North

American Missions, and I want to encourage you to do so. And if

you don't want to grab one of those, just grab one of the envelopes

that's in front of you and right Easter, Annie Armstrong, however you want

to notate it, and we'll make sure that that goes to North American Missions.

Every dollar that comes in goes to support and finance the work of the

Gospel in North America. And you can see that there are a lot of

cultures involved in reaching people in North America. And so please be in prayer

maybe about how you personally or maybe we as a church can be involved in

the North American Mission Board in serving those who are who are lost to see

more come to Christ. So it's a it's a great opportunity for us to

give towards missions. All right, today, it's Easter, it's Resurrection Sunday.

And if I say he has risen, you say he has risen.

Indeed, he has risen. He has risen, indeed, And the tomb

is empty. And I'm telling you that if each of us could worship as

exuberantly as the children do because of the resurrection of Jesus. This place would

not be the same, your life would not be the same, your community

would not be the same. And so I'll be I'll be honest. I

have to close my eyes because I want to make sure that I can focus.

But at the same time, I'm not gonna tell the kids to stop

dancing, all right, because I want to. I want to see them

and I want them to experience what it's like to have freedom in Jesus Christ.

And so if it bothers you, then either close your eyes or get

right with God, all right. So I'm not gonna put that on the

kids. I'd rather put it on us the other way. So we're gonna

continue with Romans today, And I love the way. I love the way

God always works things out to where we can continue on the path that we

were on going through Romans, and it meets perfectly with Resurrection Sunday. I

love that. And so today we're gonna talk about the need for the Gospel,

and we're gonna be in Romans chapter one. We're gonna look at verses

fifteen through twenty. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn to

Romans one fifteen through twenty of course, if you want to read along on

the screen, you can do so. Here is what Paul says. 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

to faith. As it is written, the righteous will live by faith.

For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of

men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about

God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his

invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived

ever since the creation of the life world in the things that have been made,

so they are without excuse. Heavenly Father, I thank you for today,

for our time of worship, our time of fellowship. And I prayed,

Dear God now that as we hear the word of God proclaimed Lord,

I pray that you would speak through me clearly, and that those who have

ears to hear Lord that they would hear what the Spirit of God is saying

to them. And I ask you again, Lord, open blinded eyes today

to God be the glory in Jesus name. Amen. So for Paul.

So far, and we've barely into the Book of Romans, barely into the

first chapter of the first few verses. And up until this point, Paul

has been pretty much all nicey nicy right in his desire to see the people

in the Church of Rome, his desire to preach the gospel to them,

and by doing so that they would mutually experience encouragement, that they would mutually

be encouraged. But now Paul gets to the meat of the gospel. He

gets to our spiritual state apart from God, and Easter is all about the

glory and righteousness of God, not our own. The glory of God can

be defined in a very simple statement, and it is the manifestation of all

his attributes, the manifestation of all his attributes, in his complete perfection and

his perfect completeness. He can never be more than he always has been,

and he can never be less than he has always been. He is perfectly

and completely beautiful, He is perfectly and completely loving. He is perfectly and

completely just. He is perfectly and completely holy, and that means that he

is utterly unique and set apart, and he is complete in love, goodness,

and wisdom. And by nature of his holiness, he is perfectly and

completely opposed to sin. He hates sin with a perfect and complete hatred.

No one could hate sin more than God does. And in our natural state,

we are sin sick. In our natural state, we are sinful,

and there is nothing good in us that God can use to save us.

There's nothing good in us that God can use to save us. And in

our natural, sin sick and hopeless state, we are separated from God,

and He pronounces us spiritually dead. Ephesians chapter two. I'm gonna be going

through a lot of scripture today, and so Aaron's gonna be on his toes

Ephesians two, verses one and two. And you were dead in your TransPasses,

trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this

world, following the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that

is now at work, and the sons of disobedience. And Isaiah sixty four

to six says, we have all become like one who is unclean, and

all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. That's our that's our natural

state, that's how we're born. And I've said this, I've said this

before, and you need to probably hear it again. You don't have to

do anything to become sinful, because by the fact that you were born,

you're born into sin. Pastor that sounds pretty bleak, you better believe it.

You better believe it's bleak. And if we even for one second believe

that there is an ounce of goodness in us that counts for salvation, that

we are sadly deceived because there is nothing in our human nature. There is

nothing in our human nature that God counts as righteousness. Let us think in,

let us think in. There's nothing good in you apart from God.

There's nothing good in me that counts for righteousness. Romans three ten through twelve,

as it is written, none is righteous, none is righteous, No

not one, No one understands, no one seeks God. All have turned

aside together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.

Talking about us in our natural state apart from God. There's nothing good

in anyone, not even one. And Paul says in Romans seven eighteen.

This is Paul the apostle. All he says, for I know that nothing

good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. And I prayed earlier

that today God would open blind eyes. We pray that all the time.

That is a prayer that we pray on a regular basis, that God would

open blinded eyes to see. Because Satan has certainly blinded the eyes of man.

He has corrupted the mind of man to deceive him and to thinking that

his good deeds will earn him favor with God. That is the deception of

the enemy, to get you to believe that the things that you do that

are good will outweigh the things that you do are bad, and that will

somehow get you into heaven. And that's one of his greatest lies. It's

one of his greatest deceptions, that we can do something that will earn us

favor with God and get us into heaven. The second Corinthians four to four,

this is Paul speaking. He says, in their case, Satan,

the God of this world, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep

them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the Glory. Of Christ,

who is the image of God. So can you see Can you see this

morning, how important that it is that we consistently pray for the lost,

because they're blinded. And it is up to us to pray for those who

are blinded by the enemy. That God would open their eyes, that they

may see that they have a great need, a dire need and urgent need

to see themselves as lost as sinful. Lord opened their eyes to see that

they are lost without you. Lord, Open their eyes to see that they

cannot earn their way to heaven. Lord, open their eyes to see that

they have been deceived by Satan to keep them in darkness. Lord, open

their eyes to repentance. Lord, open their eyes. So what awaits those

who are content to live in their natural states? Verse eighteen of our text

for the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of

men who, by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. To use a term from

the sixties, this is heavy, man, This is heavy. This is

important. It's important that not only you hear it this morning, but you

understand it. How many times have you heard it said, how can a

good God sin someone to hell, you heard that. Well, let us

remember that God is perfectly complete in all of his attributes. He is perfectly

complete in his love for all mankind. For God so loved the world that

he gave his only begotten son, right. Sin entered the human race when

Adam and Eve disobeyed God in Romans five point twelve. Therefore, just as

sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and

so death spread to all men. Because all sinned by nature, we are

unrighteous. God by nature is holy. We, in our state of unrighteousness,

cannot exist in the presence of the one who is perfect in righteousness.

And this morning we cannot, not only this morning, but anytime for that

matter. We can't simply neglect. We can't simply gloss over the severe side

of the gospel. Come on, because God is not just all squishy,

mushy love. There is a severe side to the gospel that you have to

hear. You have to understand that the greatness of God's love for you and

me also is root in his hatred for sin. There is an eternal penalty

to pay for rejecting the free gift of eternal life in Jesus. Why because

By rejecting Jesus, we remain in a state of sin and unrighteousness. And

because of God's perfect and complete hatred for sin, listen. Because of it,

he will completely punish it by pouring out his wrath against it. When

man's sin collides with God's wrath's God wins and man loses. Every time,

Your sin will never win against God's Saying no to Jesus tells God that you

are You're content to live in your own ability to save yourself, and that

because Satan has blinded you, you don't believe what God says is true.

That's what Adam and ethought. And in saying no to Jesus, you have

chosen for yourself and eternal punishment in Hell, plain and simple to experience the

never ending wrath of God against sin. God does not send anyone to hell

by rejecting Jesus. You choose to go there on your own. Wow,

it just hit me. Wow. I studied this all week and that hit

me brand new right again. So what do we know? What do we

need to know and to understand about the wrath of God. Wrath can be

defined as great anger expressed in punishment. God expressed his wrath against sinful man

in Noah's day by flooding the earth, killing all life except for Noah and

his family and two of every kind of animal. But God had a plan

of redemption in place the Romans five eight, And I'll read Romans five eight,

probably three or four times today. For while we were still weak,

he says, meaning unable to save ourselves. While we were still weak and

unable to save ourselves at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly amen

Galatians four four and five. When the fullness of time had come, God

sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law,

to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption

as sons. God's plan always been there, never Plan B. It was

always Plan A. And back to Romans five versus eight and nine. And

this is the this is the meat of the gospel. This is the very

reason that not only do we celebrate and observe Easter and the Resurrection one day

a year, but for every moment of our lives. That's that's who we

are, that's why we that's why we come here every week. That's why

we repent of our sins every day. That's why we're in God's word,

so we can can be conformed into the image of Jesus. More and more

and more. Is all because of Romans five, eight and nine. But

God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ

died for us. Since therefore we have been justified by His blood, much

more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. The bottom

line concerning God and his response to sin is a sin will always be punished

God. God's response to sin every time is that he will punish it.

Or Verse eighteen. For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all

ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. All means all, all means all. That's

all that it means all all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men will experience the poured

out wrath of God. Here's a question for you. You've probably heard as

well. Maybe you've even asked it, pastor. What about those people who

don't hear the gospel? Are they exempt from the wrath of God against sin?

Verses nineteen and twenty. Let's look at it for what can be known

about God as plain to them? Because God has shown it to them,

for his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have

been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have

been made, so they are without excuse. Wow, that's hard. That's

hard. And I'm those two verses are gonna get more explanation next week,

because again I'm not so gonna gloss over it. But for today, we

know that there are people around this world in some places that are considered unreached.

Right, and so we wonder about about those people who are unreached or

they respond for their sin, because all have sinned and fallen short of the

glory of God. Right. Scripture says that all in godliness and all and

righteousness of men will experience the wrath of God. And it has been it

has been proven, I'll use that word that even those will call them tribes

or whomever that might be, that would seem unreached, they know that there

is a God. They know that there is a creator. They know that

because of the stars in the sky and all that is around them, that

there is someone that created those. There is an awareness that there is God.

I can't explain it all God put I believe in each one of us

a desire to know Him. The invisible attributes his eternal power, divine nature.

Paul says, They've been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world,

and the things that have been made so they are without excuse. All

all are are held accountable for sin Psalm nineteen. I love the scripture,

Psalm one nineteen. I'm sorry, Psalm nineteen, Verses one and two.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork

day to day pours out speech. Night to night reveals knowledge. The daytime,

the sun speaks, speaks of the Creator, speaks of God, and

the nighttime reveals the knowledge of God. I can't explain that fully, but

I read it enough to understand that in God's creation he has revealed, He

is made known, and we have no excuse. And yet still so many

reject his evidence. How sad you see it? Everywhere? The wrath of

God, his perfect and complete hatred and punishment for sin, will be poured

out on all those who reject His perfect and complete provision of forgiveness through the

death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the severe side

of the gospel, that if the gospel is rejected, if Jesus Christ,

the pure one of God, the only Son of God, is rejected,

the wrath of God. Awaits I mentioned a number of weeks ago that people

just want to talk about the love of God, right, you know,

they don't want to hear the severe side of the gospel. You know,

love one another, yeah, of course, love God with all your heart.

Yeah, of course. But you can't talk about the love and acceptance

of God without also including sin and repentance. That's what God's love is all

about. God loving us so much that he would provide way to eradicate the

penalty of sin. That's God's love because by nature we're sinners. Right by

nature, we are born into sin. We didn't do anything to become sinners.

We were just born, and we are held accountable for that sinful nature.

But because of the love of God, the great love with which he

loves us, he provided a way to escape his wrath and his eternal punishment

by receiving the free gift of salvation that comes only through the death, burial,

and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's his great love. Because sin sin

kills us, and his love is shown for us in his action against sin.

I once again remind you of Romans five eight. While we were still

sinners, Christ died for us, and one John three sixteen says this.

By this we know love that he laid down his life for us. His

love for us is displayed through his punishment of sin. So how did God

display his great love for us by punishing sin? I'm glad you asked so.

I hope you're ready now to hear the good news of the gospel.

That wrath stuff, you know, that's important. Again, it can't gloss

over it. You've got to understand that it's there, that it's part of

the equation. But the good news of the gospel. That's why we are

here. For God soul loved the world that he gave his only son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. We have

established that sin will be punished Romans three twenty three, for all have sinned

and fall short of the glory glory of God. We've also established that because

of sin, we cannot save ourselves. So someone who is sin less must

take our place Romans five eight. While we were still sinners. Christ died

for us. Jesus went to the cross to pay the sin debt that you

and I could not pay. We're bound, We're bound by the law right

we're bound by apart from Christ. Apart from Christ. We're bound by living

the law perfectly. And if we break one of the one of the laws,

then we're guilty of the whole law. Jesus went to the cross to

pay the sin debt for you and I because we could not pay it.

So also hear this. What happened to Jesus on the cross was eternally more

than a simple Roman execution. Now that sounds horrid enough, morbid enough the

way it is a Roman execution, horrible way to die. But there was

more going on the cross as far as Jesus was concerned, than just being

executed by Roman soldiers. There was a transference that took place on the cross.

Jesus went to the cross a perfect sinless man. But the excruciating agony

that Jesus experienced while hanging there was so much more than the physical pain of

nails in his hands and feets, more than simply a crown of thorns crushed

upon his head. More than simply having his his flesh scraped off of his

body where he was hardly recognizable as a man. There was so much more

going on than his beating. Something eternal happened. A sinless, perfect man.

He became sin for you and me. Jesus became your sin, your

sinful nature. He took it upon him all the wrong that you have ever

done in your life. He took it upon himself, past, present,

future, paying the price. He fully received the full wrath of God against

sin, all at one moment, at that time, in that moment when

he became sin on the cross. Can God be in the presence of sin?

Can God look at sin? He cannot. In that moment when Jesus

became sin on the cross, Father God turned his back on his only son,

Jesus, the Son God, the Father, the Holy Spirit have experienced

full, unbroken, perfect fellowship for all of eternity, past all of eternity,

past Father's Son, Holy Spirit, imperfect communion, perfect union, fellowship

one with another. And in that moment on the cross where Jesus became sin,

God for the first time ever turned his back on his own son.

And Jesus was alone on the cross, and that's when he cried out,

my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's what sin

does. Sin separates. The brutality of the wrath of God against sin was

necessary. The brutality of what Jesus experienced on the cross was necessary to pay

the full price. And in Jesus on that day on the cross, the

path of God against sin was completely satisfied. In the crucifixion of Jesus,

the payment for sin was completely satisfied in the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross.

It makes me want to dance like these kids, because where would I

be? Where would I be? Listen to how Isaiah foretold the crucifixion.

Isaiah fifty three ten and eleven says, yet it was the will of the

Lord to crush him. Wow, right there, it is the will of

God to crush his son. He has put him to grief. When his

soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see, He shall see his

offering, He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper

in his hand out of the anguish of his soul. He shall see and

be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall the righteous one my servant, make many

to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Why why was

it the will of God to crush his son Because it provided permanent, eternal

forgiveness of sin. It restored God and man, making the way for us

to be acceptable in God's sights. That's what justification is, being justified in

God's sight, Not guilty through Jesus Christ the Phesians two four and five.

But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He

loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us a lie

together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. And I started

discermoned this morning by saying, Easter is all about the glory and righteousness of

God, not ours. It's about It's about Him and his ways and our

failure to live up to them. So praise God he made a way.

Praise God that his plan of redemption was never about Plan B. It was

always Plan A to redeem mankind. Because he knew the heart of man,

he knew it was sinful. It was always his plan from eternity past to

send his only son to pay the penalty for sin. Here's the best news

Jesus didn't stay on the cross, and he didn't stay in the grave.

You men, he rose from the dead on the third day, victorious over

death. He rose from the dead so that he would be victorious over death.

Right, you and I are victorious over death. Because Jesus was victorious

over death, we too will not stay in the grave. And over a

period of forty days, over five hundred people saw him alive. Not just

a couple, not just the disciples, but over five hundred people witnessed Jesus

alive after he rose from the dead. It's in the history books. By

the way, the power and the curse of sin has been broken. It

is defeated forever. The debt, your sin debt, my sin debt,

the debt of the whole world for all time, it's been paid paid in

full. Never again will your sin that you commit on a daily basis,

never again will it have to be paid for. Because it's done. It

is finished. How we screw up every day? Right, every day is

repentance. John the Baptist told when he was making he was preparing the way

for Jesus to come. John the Baptist told the Pharisees said, live a

life that reflects the fruit of repentance. That's what he told those the Pharisees.

The most important thing that we can do in our lives to be a

witness is to live our lives with the fruit of repentance, humility, forgiveness,

loving the way Jesus loves. The debt has been paid. And the

best news. That's the best news. I've said the best news a few

times, right, the best news, the best news. This may be

the best news here Romans ten thirteen. For everyone who calls on the name

of the Lord will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the

Lord will be saved. There's no hoops to jump through. Confession. Confess

with your mouth the Lord Jesus. So this morning, let me say this.

He is near, He is drawing you. So this morning, maybe

you feel your heart racing just a little bit right now, you're hearing this

this word, and you're and you're you're you're beating just a little bit harder,

a little faster. He's speaking to you, He's drawing you to him.

So will you confess to him that you are a sinner and that you

desperately need forgiveness of sin? Will you repent of sin and make a turnaround

in your life. That's what repentance is. I'm going this way. Repentance

means I'm gonna turn around. I'm gonna go this way away from sin to

a life of godliness. Will you say, Jesus, I believe you are

the son of God and that you took my place on the cross paying the

penalty for my sin. Because the Bible says now is the accepted time,

Today is the day of salvation. So well you will you make this day,

this Easter Sunday, this Resurrection Sunday, the day that your life is

resurrected from spiritual death to spiritual life in Jesus Christ. Today can be your

day. Let's pray. Thank you for tuning in to today's broadcast. We

hope you are encouraged and challenged by the preaching of God's word. You can

reach us by phone at six one eight three nine zero ten forty six,

contact us via Facebook or our website FBC Woodlawn dot Org. It's our prayer

that you answer the call of God on your life to follow him and share

your faith story with others. Goodbye for now and God bless you. S