The Gospel of God
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
The opening statement of the first chapter of Romans gives us sufficient basis for our introductory word. The statement reads thus: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God."
There are three things here plainly stated.
1. Paul was a servant of Jesus Christ. The word means nothing less than a bond slave. It does not carry with it the thought of service for pay. It is the service rendered to a lord, and master. This is the only attitude which any real believer should take. If Christ is Lord and Master, then we are servants. If we are not servants, Christ is not our Lord.
Servitude suggests obedience. If we are under our Lord, as a servant, we are called upon to go where He tells us to go; to do what He tells us to do; and to be what He tells us to be. The servant can never be above his Master.
2. Paul was an Apostle of Jesus Christ. The word "Apostle" means "a sent one." A sent one, going forth under orders.
When the Apostle Paul went to Damascus with letters of authority, he was the apostle of the Jewish Sanhedrin. When, afterward, he went forth with the Gospel of God, he was an Apostle of Jesus Christ.
If we will examine our papers, we will find out, that we are commissioned of the Lord to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.
3. Paul was separated unto the Gospel of God. He had but one thing to do, and that was to preach Christ.
(1) Paul was not called to reformation. He had no message concerning world betterment. He was not in the "clean-up" business. He was not sent to teach the lost better manners. He was not commissioned to show people how to eat, and how to drink, and how to dress.
(2) Paul was called to separation. When we think of the word "separation," we think of being separated from; we may also think of being separated unto. If we are called to one thing, we are called from every other thing that, in the least, offsets the one thing to which we are called.
Thus we contend that when Paul was separated unto the Gospel of God he was called out of every other effort, that was distinct from the Gospel of God, The Gospel is "the power of God" which saves, and there is no other gospel. Let us sacredly guard our separation unto that Gospel.
I. THE GOSPEL OF GOD (Romans 1:1)
1. A tendency to leave God out. Among faithful believers, and workers, there is a tendency, in teaching the Gospel, to eliminate God the Father, and to place all the emphasis upon God the Son. This is evidently wrong.
God, Himself, so loved the world. He is the One of whom it is written: "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
It is the long-suffering of God which waited in the days of Noah.
It is God, who was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. The truth is, as we study the Word of God, we find that the Father was just as vitally connected in the work of the Gospel, as was the Son.
God, the Holy Ghost, is also indispensable to the Gospel. Every believer is born from above, regenerated by the Spirit.
It is written: "I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." The Gospel, apart from God the Spirit, would be altogether ineffective.
Let us, therefore, be careful in preaching not to centralize in our precious Lord and Saviour, to the elimination of God the Father, and God the Spirit.
2. Wherein the Gospel, is the Gospel of God. The Gospel is the Gospel of God, because the Gospel was purposed by God. He originated the plan of redemption.
Before the foundation of the world, the Lord God chose us, in Christ, "that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love."
Back in eternity the Father predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
The Gospel is the Gospel of God, in the second place, because God sent Christ to be the Saviour of the world. The truth is that God is behind everything relative to the Gospel. Therefore, the Gospel is God's Gospel.
II. THE SON OF GOD (Romans 1:4)
1. The message of the Gospel is about the Son of God.
This is the testimony of the Old Testament Prophets. The first half of the Bible is full of the message of redemption, which is in Christ Jesus. It has been truly said, that God's son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the core of the whole Bible, Take the Prophet Isaiah the Lord Jesus Christ is his one great theme. He is the Lamb, led forth to the slaughter; the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with griefs. He is the One whose soul is made an offering for sin; the One who was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. It is He who shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied. So, throughout the Bible, the Gospel of God centers in the Son of God.
2. The message of the Gospel is about One who is declared to be the Son of God. The modernist may endeavor to make Him the Son of Joseph. He may seek to humanize Him, and to drag Him down from His Deity. However, it is written that He is "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead."
He who stands at the empty tomb, stands recognizing the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. His resurrection is certified by many infallible proofs; and the certainty of His resurrection certifies Christ as the Son of God.
God would never have raised an impostor from the grave. God would never have placed an impostor at His own right hand. God would never have accorded an impostor with all authority and power.
Thus it is that we thank God, that the Gospel of God, centers in the Son of God who was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, that He might have Blood to shed; but, who was declared, in His resurrection, to be the Son of God with power. In these remarkable words all the glory of the Virgin Birth is restated in unmistakable terms.
III. THE POWER OF GOD (Romans 1:16)
The Apostle said: "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
1. The Gospel of God, is also the Gospel of Christ. It is the Gospel of God in the sense that God originated it, purposed it, and planned it; it is the Gospel of Christ, because He is the message of the Gospel, and He also is the heart of the Gospel,
2. The Gospel of God and of Christ is the power of God. There is nothing weak about the Gospel. There are some who want to call salvation a childish affair; or, something that is good alone for the women.
The Bible proclaims the Gospel as the power of God, in the salvation of every believer. It was no small matter, which God undertook, in Christ, in behalf of lost sinners.
If we want to see the scope and power of the Gospel of salvation, we must first go down into the depths of sin, yea, into the depths of hell to which sin carries the unbeliever.
3. The Gospel of God which is the power of God, brings salvation to the believer. Everyone may be saved. There is sufficiency of power in the Gospel, not only to save the greatest sinner, but to save every sinner. However, that power does not operate until faith operates.
We have sometimes used the story of the streetcar. There is plenty of power passing through the wires, but those wires must be contacted by the touch of the trolley, before the streetcar can move. Faith is the trolley.
IV. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD (Romans 1:17)
1. The Gospel of God contains the righteousness of God. Our text says, concerning the Gospel: "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed."
The thing which God had to face, was how He could be just, and yet pardon the guilty. We must remember that when God purposed redemption He had to sustain the dignity of His holy laws; uphold His own righteousness; and remove every legal obstacle to man's redemption.
All of this was accomplished through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus was made "sin for us, * * that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
He took our sins, paid their penalty, and suffered, the Just for the unjust.
We must never think that God merely got sorry for the sinner, and decided to overlook his sins.
We must never imagine that God, in any way, failed to sustain His own inherent righteousness, and holiness, and justice, in the salvation of the lost. God remained righteous, and yet received into His own presence chamber, by the way of the Cross, those who were unrighteous.
2. The Gospel of God imparts the righteousness of God. Not only did God sustain His righteousness in the Gospel; but He made the sinner who believed, righteous.
The Cross of Christ not only sees Jesus suffering for our sins and carrying them away, but it sees God imputing unto us the righteousness of God.
The believing sinner stands before God through the Blood of the Cross, as sinless. There is not one stain of his sin left upon him. God not only forgets his sin, and blots out his sin, and puts his sin behind His own back, but God, also, makes the sinner white. It is written: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."
It was this imputed righteousness of God, of which Paul spake when he said that he wanted to stand before God "not having mine own righteousness, which is of the Law, * * but * * the righteousness which is of God by faith."
V. THE WRATH OF GOD (Romans 1:18)
Our eighteenth verse reads thus: "For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men."
1. The reason for the Gospel of God. We started this study with the Gospel of God. We discovered that that Gospel was concerning the Son of God. Next, we learned that the Gospel of God was the power of God conveying to the believer the righteousness of God. We now discover the reason for the Gospel the necessity of the Gospel. The Gospel was necessary because the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
God found it necessary to condemn every ungodly man. His inherent holiness and righteousness, made necessary His wrath against unholiness and unrighteousness. For this cause, God sent forth the good news of salvation. When men, therefore, come and hide beneath the wings of the Gospel, they cannot be touched by the wrath of God. The man Christ Jesus becomes a covert from the storm.
It is written: "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."
2. Those who reject the Gospel remain under wrath. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not * * the wrath of God abideth on him." There are many today who refuse to believe in the wrath of God. They vainly imagine that somehow or other, God will manage to get all men into Heaven.
The Second Coming of Christ, in its attitude to those who have refused to hold the truth in righteousness, is thus described: "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven * * in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of pur Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord."
VI. THE GLORY OF GOD (Romans 1:23)
1. Sin's terrible attempt. The men who hold down the Gospel of God, and reject the righteousness of God by faith, will press on and on in their sins. They "became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man."
The Book of Jude describes the men of the last days, as "ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." In the same Book, the saints are urged to worship "the only wise God our Saviour"; and to give Him "glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever."
This is the day in which men do not like to retain God in their knowledge. They continue to blaspheme Him with their lips, and repudiate Him in their lives. It is for this cause that God gives men over to a reprobate mind.
2. The result of refusing to glorify God. When men glorify God and worship Him, exalting Him as a Lord and Saviour, they are acceptable before Him. When men glorify Him not as God, neither are thankful; they soon become filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, etc.
There is a little verse that says: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
It is not difficult to discern between the godly, and the ungodly. The former delight in singing the coronation hymn, crowning Christ, Lord of All. The latter glory only in men; they glory in the flesh; and they have no place in their hearts, or in their lips, to glorify the Lord.
VII. THE JUDGMENT OF GOD (Romans 1:32; Romans 2:2-3; Romans 2:5)
1. God judges the ungodly as worthy of death. The same Christ who said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," said, also, "And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments."
The man who accepts the Gospel, is saved from the wrath to come, inasmuch as God's wrath against his sin, fell on Christ.
The man who rejects the Gospel refuses to enter the covert of safety, and leaves himself exposed to the wrath of God.
2. God warns the wicked of false hopes. He says: "And thinkest thou this, O man, * * that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?" The very next verse says: "Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?"
It is utter madness for any unsaved man to spurn the grace of God, and yet to imagine that he can withal escape the judgment of God.
3. The judgment of God irretrievably falls upon the hard and impenitent heart. The wicked who refuse mercy, spurn the Spirit's call; turn away from the love of God. They will, therefore, find their hearts daily growing harder and more impenitent. Such men are treasuring up, unto themselves, wrath against the day of wrath.
4. God's judgments against the wicked are righteous. Our God cannot overlook sin. He will render to every man, according to his deeds. To those who are contentious, and obey not the truth, He will render "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish."
In that great-white-throne judgment day, God will open the books of record. He who has rejected Christ will be damned; then, every one of the damned, will be judged according to the things which are written in the books.
Men may mock at the wrath of God, and decry the judgment of God, nevertheless, it is written: "death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." It is also written "the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever, and ever: and they have no rest day nor night."
AN ILLUSTRATION
"As a result of a wager to test the skepticism of the British public, a man disguised as a peddler appeared in the streets of London and offered genuine five-pound notes for a penny each. Although he offered these extraordinary bargains for an hour, flourishing the notes in his hand and crying, 'Five-pound notes for a penny each,' even permitting people to examine them, the peddler sold only two. It appeared to be too good an offer to be true. It suggests to us the query, 'Is the Gospel too cheap?' Our answer is that it is offered freely without money yet a man must give himself and his life in return for it. Then the price of our redemption was the suffering on Calvary. While it is offered freely, and every one is urged to come and partake of it, we must never forget the price paid was not silver or gold, but the 'precious Blood of Christ.'