Good News - Bad News

Well, good evening, good evening, good evening. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we get into the Lord's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. This year, 2023, we'll make it from the book of Acts to the book of Philemon. Today we're at Romans chapter 1, verses 16 through 32. Just letting you know, it's a little bit of a heavy one. We have to look at the bad news to understand the good news.
So why don't we go ahead and have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into the Lord's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day, and we thank you for your word. We pray now that as we read your word, that your Holy Spirit might be the one who would be working in us to understand it, and that we would be built up by it, and we might know the gospel. and might have hope for eternity in Jesus's name. Amen. Here we go. Romans chapter one, beginning at verse 16. Just saw something pop up here. I want to make sure that we're still good. Here we go. Romans chapter one, beginning at verse 16.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest to them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools. and change the glory of the incorruptible God. into an image made like a reputable man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanness and the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of women burned in their lust for one another, men with women committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to those things which are not fitting. Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Undiscerning, unworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them."
Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words? What's this passage about? Well, verses 16 and 17 really set up the framework for what the entire book of Romans is going to be.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation for 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 just shall live by faith. This is really the heart of it.
Why is Paul longing to go to the Romans? Because he wants to preach to them. He wants to impart a spiritual gift to them. He wants to tell them and encourage them and build them up in their faith. He's not ashamed of the gospel. This word gospel, evangelion, in the Greek is good news. He's got good news for them that in Jesus Christ, those who are living by faith, those who put their faith in God, those who God has given them the instrumentality of faith, are righteous. And so this is where he's going to go. And so he's going to unpack that good news. He's going to talk about how both Jews and Gentiles need this good news. And he's going to go on and he's going to talk about how God plays this good news out and how this good news interacts with our souls and how it should be encouraging us.
And then in the second half of the book, What does it mean for us as we live our lives as those who are redeemed by Christ? So first we have to look at the bad news and that's verses 18 through 32. Now let's take a moment here. Unless you are ethnically Jewish, which would be a very small minority, Every single one of us, by nature, are these Gentiles that he's talking about here.
And what does he say they did? For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. See, we take the truth of God, and even though the heavens declare the glory of the Lord, instead of worshiping the one who created all things, Instead, our hearts turn and they worship the Creator, or the created rather than the Creator. And in our pushing down of God's righteousness and pushing down of God's holiness, It's like we take a beach ball.
Have you ever done that before? Gone to a pool and taken a beach ball and try to shove it underwater. This is what humanity does. We try to, we try to shove underneath. We try to get the truth down below the surface, but it's always right there. It's always booing up. The buoyancy is always pushing against us because we know that we are created beings. We know that he is righteous. We know that we must be those who are godly. And yet we fall far short of that.
And so what does God say He does for us who have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness? The Lord says He gives them over to their debased minds. He gives them over to all sorts of immorality, all sorts of ungodliness and uncleanness. He specifically points out the changing of the natural relations of man for a woman and changing it for women desiring women and men desiring men. But it's not just that. See, he pushes even further and there's a whole list here.
Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. See, we don't by nature want to think about God. We want to remove Him from our mind as if that was possible. We were made in the image of God. You were made in the image of God. So we can't somehow divorce ourselves from the Lord. But God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all. And then he goes in verse 29 and following. All these marks that show our separateness from God.
Sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, whispers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. Any single one of those would show us that we are not righteous. I might be the best person in the world, but if I am filled with envy, I'm filled with a heart of idolatry. I might be the most kind and compassionate person in the world, but if I have a deviant heart going after sexual immorality of any stripe or kind, I'm a sinner, ungodly, suppressing the truth and unrighteousness.
See, this is what the Lord is saying to us. We need the good news of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation. You can be saved from your sins because God has made a way for you to be righteous by giving you faith in his son. This is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, no matter their ethnicity. No matter what tribe or nation or people they're from or what tongue they speak, if they confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised him from the dead, they will be saved. I'm getting ahead of myself here, but this is all crouched in his desire to come and preach to them the gospel.
See, we must realize that we are sinners. There is a line that God drew in the sand and we crossed over that line. We transgressed that line. God set a bar of holiness. He said, here's what holiness looks like. And we're like high jumpers who fall short of that bar every single time. God is the one who cannot stand to even look upon sin. And yet we are sinners. So how are we made right with God?
It's not what we could do, but it's what Jesus has done. And so as we go through the book of Romans, we're going to see that it is a glorious gospel, that God saves sinners like me and like you. He did all the work for it and he gives us the blessing of faith. The just shall live by faith. Our righteousness will come from Christ. Our righteousness is from Christ. It is an imputed righteousness. I'm going to I'm going to stop because I can preach. We could go too far. What are you called to do in response to these words? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? I'd encourage you to pick up your Bible sometime and go read Psalm 32 or Psalm 51.
And confess your sins to the Lord. He'll wash you as clean as snow. He'll sprinkle you as with hyssop. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and He is righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness. I pray. That you have faith in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we pray. That you might teach us to follow you. We pray that we would know you and love you. We pray that we would. Lord, that we would cling to you alone. The only thing we bring to this equation Is the sin necessary for us to be saved? Father, we are sinners and we need you. We need you to save us, to redeem us.
Thank you that you've given us good news, that our Redeemer has come and there is power. and the foolishness of the preaching of the gospel. Lord, please spread your good news throughout the world that Jesus Christ has come to save sinners like us. In Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you tonight. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural Southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.