The Foundation of Grace

Scripture Reading

Let's go ahead and turn in our Bibles to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. I was told this morning that I think it's on page 999. Romans chapter 1. This morning we're just going to read verses 16 and 17 of Romans chapter 1.

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.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. It is true. Now we pray for your Holy Spirit to please help our hearts to understand it and to live it. Please transform us, Lord, from the inside out. God, help me. Give me the words to speak of encouragement to build up your people. Please wield your word as a two-edged sword. Father, please do heart surgery this morning and renew the joy of our salvation. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. So today is an overview sermon, and the overview sermon is about the gospel. Now the gospel, that's a fancy old English word, gospel. Gospel just means good news, good message. Evangelion is the word in Greek.

Sermon

And so this is the heart of what Paul is getting at. And so what we're going to do this morning is see this foundation of grace. As we look at the Romans chapter 1 through Romans chapter 5, my prayer is that you will see that God has shown grace in saving sinners. God has shown grace in saving sinners. And so it is, we're going to be moving fast. We've got five chapters of Romans to cover, and I'm going to try to get us out of here before 3 o'clock this afternoon. But we're going to have eight steps.

The good news starts with God's love

The first is that the good news starts with God's love. Secondly, the good news is about Jesus himself. Thirdly, the good news is for all people. Fourth, the good news is for sinners. Fifth, the good news of God's salvation is by faith in the person and work of Jesus. I'll repeat that one, it's long. The good news of God's salvation is by faith in the person and work of Jesus. Sixth, we will see the good news was believed by Abraham. Seventh, that the good news reconciles us to God. And eighth, the good news changes what king we follow. So first, the good news starts with God's love.

This is extremely important because as we look at the thesis statement of Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17, that's going to be point 2, point 3, but as we get there we need to remember the foundation of what Paul started his message with. You might look at verses 1 through, that's verse 7, and think, well this is just front matter, it doesn't matter very much, but I would propose to you that Verses 1 through 7 set the tone for everything else Paul is about to say. Look with me at verses 1 through 7.

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, the word is slave. That idea of slave, by the way, is going to come up again really prominent in chapter 6. But Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all the nations for his name among whom you also are called of Christ Jesus to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints." That's where it starts. Paul is an apostle. He's sent with a message, and that message is about Jesus. It's going to be point two, but point one is where he introduces us to all who are in Rome.

Pacific City, capital of the Roman Empire, pagan heart all over the place. And he says, you who are in Rome, what's your relationship to God? Beloved, those who have experienced and know God's committed love. His agape love to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, called to be holy ones.

The good news starts with God's love. God cares for his people. He shows, the Old Testament word for this is chesed. He shows covenant love, committed love. A type of love that doesn't quit but is sacrificial. This is the type of God who loves you. Not an angry tyrant God up in heaven that you have to just constantly placate with your good life and your good sacrifices. No, a God who loves. To all who are in Rome, beloved of God. So the good news starts with God's love.

And I need to make that very clear because there are some people who will sit here and they'll think, well, the good news actually starts with repent and believe the gospel. So see, you have to repent and then you can be a Christian. You have to repent and then you can believe. You have to repent and then God will love you. If you start with that, if you start with you have to repent first, You're never going to be able to rest in God's love because you never know if God actually loved you first. Or are you always having to earn His love to stay in His love?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying repentance doesn't matter. Actually we're going to find out when we get to Romans 6, 7, and 8 that Paul's going to have to answer some of the same objections you might be coming up with like, well then you must not care about sin at all because God is love. No, no, may it never be. We don't sin so grace could abound. Sin is real and we'd hate sin but it's because God loved us.

The good news is about Jesus himself

Because we're called to be holy. Because we're called to be saints. But that starts with God's love. Because this is the point. Look with me at verses 2 through 3. The good news is about Jesus. In verse 1, Paul says that he is separated. He's called to be an apostle. Separated to the gospel. Separated to the good news of God. What is that good news of God? Verse 2. This is really important. What is the gospel? What is the good news of God? This is the gospel which he promised before, through the prophets and the holy scriptures.

That's why Elder Smith read Isaiah chapter 52 to us. We find the good news all throughout the Old Testament prophets. They're all throughout the old writings. The reason why we read the Old Testament isn't just because it was Jesus' Bible when he was a boy, but it's because even in the Old Testament the very words of life are there.

Christ is there. So it's not a new gospel. It's a full gospel. And then look at verse 3. This good news of God is concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. We might change that to Jesus Christ, our ruler. Jesus Christ, our master. Jesus Christ, the one who calls the shots. Jesus Christ, the one whom we follow and obey. This good news is concerning God's own son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is born of the seed of David. The good news of God is that Jesus fulfilled the promise that God made to David in 2 Samuel chapter 6. God told David, you are going to have a son who would sit on the throne forever.

The good news is for all people

And it wasn't Solomon. It wasn't Jeroboam. Wasn't any of the Old Testament kings. Until he came to Jesus, the seed of David, according to the flesh. The good news is about Jesus. The good news is concerning Jesus. And this good news is for all people. This is Paul's thesis statement in verses 16 and 17 of Romans chapter 1. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, of the good news of Christ. For the good news, the it is referring to the gospel or the evangelion, the good news. For I am not ashamed of the good news of Christ.

For the good news is the power of God to salvation to 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. The good news, the good news that's demonstrating, showing us God's love towards his people, the good news that is about Jesus, is the good news that is for Jews and Greeks.

This is ancient Jewish way of saying everyone. There's only two categories of people in a Jewish mind. God's people, and ethnoi, or goyim in Hebrew. The other nations. Those other people. Those other ethnicities. There's a Jewish, the chosen people, and the not chosen people.

And the gospel, the good news is that No, God's love is by faith received to all types of people. One of the prophets in the Old Testament even said in the book of Hosea that he would call a people who are not his people to be his people. God was promised way back, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, that he was going to call the nations to himself. If you're ever here, I've not asked Daniel for this illustration, but I hope he'll forgive me. If you're ever here for a psalm sing or for a chalk and talk, we always ask for requests. And one of the hands that always goes up right away is Daniel's. 117b. 117b. He always wants to sing 117b. If we're at home and we're going to sing a psalm, he wants to sing 117b. And even in Psalm 117, let all the peoples praise you. All of them.

Psalm 117 is like the shortest Psalm in the entire Bible. Actually, we'll just turn there just for a second to see that this good news about God loving all the people and being offered to all nations. This is a Psalm that you would imagine if you had a kid. and you ask them to pray, they would say a big huge prayer that would come from like a six-year-old and be like, OK, that's a little bit too big. Let's be realistic here. Notice what Psalm 117 says.

Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Laud Him, all you peoples. For His merciful kindness is great towards us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. All peoples. All nations. God just let them all praise you. Right? Because you're that good. You're that wonderful. You're that great. Could you imagine that coming from the lips of like your six-year-old or eight-year-old when they're praying? They're like, well, I don't know if everybody's going to praise him. No, he's that good.

The good news is for sinners

Even in the prophets of old, God was testified. This is an old good news promise beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures. Both Jews and Greeks would be justified by grace. They'd believe and be declared righteous. And so fourthly, Paul starts to answer the question then, how are people going to be justified? They're sinful. How can God possibly love Gentiles? They're not of the family of Abraham. They're sinful people. They're unclean people.

Well, Paul doesn't reduce the amount of God's holiness. Actually, quite the opposite. Look at chapter 1, verse 18 with me. As we talk about the good news is for sinners. For the wrath of God, well, that's not a popular message. That's the message that would make people turn off the TV right away. I don't want to hear about God's wrath. I like this whole idea about God's love. I don't want to hear about God's wrath.

But no, the true gospel is that God saves sinners. And so we have to hear about sin. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." God's wrath is against those who are irreverent and unrighteous. Those who refuse to give thanks to him or worship him. Those who go to idolatry. And in the rest of chapter one, he talks about all sorts of sins. Just kind of peruse around with me in chapter one.

This wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. It's made manifest to them. They know it. God's righteous attributes can be seen by the world. But God gives them over, verse 24, therefore God also gave them over to uncleanness and the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. Exchanging the truth of God for a lie. And then he starts listing what does this look like. Well, it looks like first In relationships. It starts with idolatry and then in relationships.

Giving over 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 men 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. And then what happened with this debased mind? being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, fool of envy, murderer, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whispers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil, things disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death. We would expect after that, so they got death. But that's not what this story is, is it?

These Gentiles, who are given over to that type of passion, God says, I'm going to love some of them. I'm going to bring them out of their filth and save them. The good news is for sinners. But a Jewish person might say, well, that's for those Gentile sinners. That's not our problem.

And he says, whoa, hold on, chapter 2, all the way through chapter 3, verse 8. You're inexcusable, oh man, whoever you are. who judge for whatever you judge another you condemn yourself for you who judge practice the same things. And then he goes on for the Jews. You've got the law and yet you don't keep the law. You want to say you're a child of Abraham but you don't live by righteousness. You want to say that you're children of the law but you don't follow the law.

What makes you think that somehow you're going to be justified before God? He says no. No, even Jewish people who sin, and the problem is, every Jewish person who's ever lived has sinned, except for Jesus. So they can't be justified by their works. You can't trust in your circumcision. You can't trust in the law.

That's what you get in verse 25, for circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law, but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. You can't trust in just the fact that you've received the sign of the covenant, but you're trusting in your own works. But you're breaking the law. And if you break the law, you're condemned under law. So how can you possibly be the beloved of God? It can't be by your law keeping. That's why I started off with point one. The good news is about God's love.

It's never going to be because you are a good enough kid. You will never be saved because you obey your parents perfectly. You're never going to be saved because you think, oh, I'll be underneath the wrath of God because I'll just quit coveting altogether.

Good luck. I'll just always speak kindly. I will always do everything perfectly. Talk about a life of exhaustion. And you will either go one direction or the other. Either you will so minimize sin that you become huge in your self-righteousness, thinking that you are perfect, while everybody else is able to see all the stains on your clothes, and you're not perfect. Or, you will know that you're not perfect, but you want to be perfect, but you don't know if God loves you, and so you will constantly strive, trying to earn God's love, when God's love was never earned.

But it's by grace, through faith. It's not a work, we don't get to brag about it. So God's good news is for sinners, Jews and Gentiles. That's really what he's getting at in Romans chapter 3 verses 19 through 18. What then, are we, our Jewish people, any better than they? Not at all, for we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. And then, oh boy, he puts together a string of pearls here with Old Testament passages just to give no escape.

There's no conclusion that you can get to other than that all people are sinners from the Old Testament. There is none righteous, no not one. There is none who understands. There is no one who seeks God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no not one.

Their throat is an open tomb, with their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lip, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." So they're doomed to hell forever, every single one of them.

The good news of God's salvation is by faith in the person and work of Jesus

Does that sound like the rest of the scriptures? No. Somehow God still has people he loves in Rome, even though none of them are righteous by themselves, not one. So how does that happen? Well, that's our fifth point. The good news of God's salvation is by faith in the person and work of Jesus. The righteousness of God has been revealed apart from the law. The law brings death. Paul will talk about this in the book of Galatians. If you go to the book of Galatians, he wants to compare Sinai and Jerusalem. And Sinai is where you got the law. And if you think that you're going to find freedom in the law, you are actually a slave. You are a slave to the law and a slave to sin. There's no freedom there. You will find a cruel taskmaster. Never enough. Never enough. Never enough. You try to follow the law, you won't do it well enough. You won't do it well enough. You won't do it well enough. You won't do it well enough.

Did you know there's a whole thing that's come out in psychology recently? There's a whole area called moral OCD. It's often tied to people who think that if I just keep the law good enough, Then finally I'll be okay with God. And in their hearts they have just tons of anxiety and fear because they're not... Am I keeping all the little minute pieces good enough that then I'll be good enough and then I can finally be loved?

Even secular people are starting to be able to diagnose that and go, there's something wrong here. Because the gospel is supposed to give you... Notice Romans chapter 1 when he said, grace and peace to you. And yet there's no peace. Only fear. But perfect love's supposed to drive out fear. You were never loved because you were good enough.

You were loved because Jesus is good enough. Verse 22 of Romans chapter three, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference, right? It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Greek. Righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ. The only reason why you have a right standing with God is if you have faith in Jesus, because Jesus is the one who is perfect. Verse 23, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us have sinned. Every single one of us. None of us are perfect. None of us have met the bar of glory that we're supposed to be at. We've all fallen short.

So what's the solution to that? Verse 24. But yet we have been justified freely by God's grace. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness. Do you see? Because God is that righteous. It's not about your righteousness. It's about God's righteousness. God is so righteous, so just, so perfect in all of his holiness, that he would refuse to turn a blind eye to the reality of our sin.

We were doomed to die. For the wages of sin is death. That's what he told Adam and Eve. He warned them. He said, for the day you eat of it dying, you will die. You will surely die. You eat of that fruit, you're going to die. You'll face the wrath. You'll face the natural consequences. So how does God still maintain His righteousness and His justice if He's able to love vile, wicked people like Romans chapter 1 and 2? because he met his righteousness in the death of Jesus' Son.

Jesus was tried, tested, tempted in every way as we are, yet was not with sin. Jesus never sinned. What we could never do with the Ten Commandments, never be able to keep any of them perfectly, Jesus does wonderfully. Jesus laid down his own life for us, being justified, being declared righteous freely by God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Jesus willingly laid down his life. First Peter tells us that God redeemed us, not with silver or gold or any perishable thing, but with the blood of Jesus, his own son.

Jesus walked into the slave market, bought you back, and calls you his. It's a free gift. That's why He's our Lord. That's why we follow Him. Because God has loved us so much and Jesus has cared for us so much that we will follow Him through thick and thin. We'll go through the valley of the shadow of death because we know He's with us. We'll face lions, we'll face trials, we'll face temptations. We will even boast in our tribulations because we know that the grace of God is with us in Jesus. This is what Romans 1 through 3 was about.

The good news was believed by Abraham

Paul really wants to make sure that the Jewish people he's talking to in Rome get it. And so in chapter 4 he says, okay look, this is really old. If you think that I'm bringing to you some brand new fancy thing, no, no, no, no, no. Back it up. Let's go back to one of the forefathers. Let's go back to the model of our faith. We'll go to Abraham and we'll look at the father of the faith. The one who received the covenant initially for the Jewish people. What shall we say that Abraham... Romans 4 verse 1. What then shall we say that Abraham, our father, was found according to the flesh? Was Abraham perfect? And that's why God said, Oh, look, I'll find my perfect servant, Abraham. He never messes anything up. He's a great guy, swell in everything he does. I'm so proud of that guy. Every vowel, every syllable, everywhere he goes, he's just wonderful.

Do you remember reading the life of Abraham? No. No, God found him as a pagan on the other side of the river in Ur of the Chaldeans and loved him there. And even when Abraham kept bumbling and stumbling and messing things up and doing things that you wives should never let your husbands do with you, when he starts passing her off as his sister, yet God still rescues him, redeems him. Because God doesn't wait for perfect people before he saves them. God loves sinners.

And now I'm gonna say, right, that means there's an implication in the church. If you come to Sharon and you think that as you come to Sharon you're gonna find perfect families and perfect people, I don't know who's whispered that type of lie into your ear. No, what you're gonna find is people who have been loved by God and are trying to love God and are called to be saints. and are trying to conform our lives to the image of Jesus. But that means sometimes we need God's Word to teach us. Sometimes we need God's Word to rebuke us, to correct us, and to train us. Because we're not above sin. None of us. Our boast is in Christ alone.

Abraham believed, verse 3. What did the scripture say? Romans 4, 3. For what did the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. God's not a debtor to you. God, let's just make this very clear, God doesn't owe you anything. Period. God isn't a debtor. But He is a gift giver. And He gives the gift of life. Eternal life in His Son, Jesus Christ. And if you think, oh well that's too narrow. I don't like that. You take it up with God. Because He's the one who demonstrated His own love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners. While we were still dead in our transgressions and sins. He gave us His only begotten Son. And if that's not enough for you, I don't know what will ever please you.

God's salvation, the good news of God's salvation is by faith in the person and the work of Jesus, and that's exactly what Abraham believed. He believed that while he was uncircumcised, he believed that he would be heir of the world, he believed And verse 16 of verse 4, therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Do you have faith in Jesus? Because Abraham believed God's promises and God counted it to him, reckoned it to him for righteousness.

The good news reconciles us to God

He knew that somehow God would fulfill this promise and the whole world would somehow be blessed through him. He was looking to Jesus. It was in types and in shadows, but he was looking. And this was not just written for Abraham alone, verse 23. It was not written for his sake alone, but it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead and who is delivered because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. The good news was believed by Abraham. And the good news has effects now in our lives. The good news reconciles us to God. That's what chapter five starts off with. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Oh, and because of that, we do this weird thing. We'll even rejoice in tribulations. What? Yeah, that's what he says. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. We boast about our tribulations. Why? When bad things, as the world might call them, happen to your life, and I know that this might sound, oh, I don't know, like maybe a little bit flippant.

No, I'm telling you, we have a brother right now who is in searing pain in the congregation, cannot walk out of his house right now, and yet when I go see him and I've talked to him when we were at the rehab hospital, he just, he's sitting there evangelizing the physical therapist walking in the room, telling them about Jesus. If your hope is in Jesus, you will be able to glory in Jesus even as you suffer in pain. But we also glory in tribulations knowing that the tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope.

Now hope does not disappoint because of love. Notice this part of verse 5. We're back to point one. Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. If the love of God has been poured out in your heart, you know that everything going on in your life has a purpose. Because a father who loves his children doesn't just expose them. Say, well, I don't really care about you.

You're on your own. No, we have a God who we know is provident and sovereign. He is superseding, he's watching over our life. He counts every hair on his children head. He knows every morsel of food you need. He knows the clothes that you need and he will provide for your needs. He may not provide in everything you want. Sometimes he sanctifies us by taking away things that we might want.

The good news changes what king we follow

But God reconciles us to us, to himself, because he's good. And he did this, the amazing thing is he did this when we were sinners. Verse six, for when we were still without strength, we were weak. When we were weak, that's when God stepped in. In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. We rejoice in God because of Jesus. Because we were enemies, but now he calls us his friends. And that's where Paul finishes out Romans chapter 5. The good news changes what king we follow.

Therefore, justice through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus also death spread to all men, because all sinned. Verse 14, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned, according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who is to come. We were all represented by Adam. subject to the rule and the dominion, the reign of death, because sin pervaded, like a cancer going all throughout the world, spreading malignantly, everywhere it touched, death, death, death, death, death. But that's not the case for Christians.

For though you may die, yet you shall surely live, is what Jesus told his disciples. The free gift is not like the offense. No, God's gift in Jesus is way better than the curse of Adam. Verse 16. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment came from the one offense resulting in condemnation. But the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For by one man's offense, death reigned through the one.

Much more, those who received abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ." Death and judgment came from Adam. Life and righteousness come from Jesus. So whose kingdom are you under? The amazing thing is, to be a part of Jesus' kingdom?

You don't do anything. God's done everything. We receive it. We receive it. Now, you may struggle. We're going to get really into this in Romans 6. From Romans 6 onward, we're going to be talking a lot about what does it look like to be a Christian. And you're going to struggle with sin. What I'd like to propose to you, we struggle with sin because we know God loves us. The true Christian wrestles with sin because we know that Jesus is for us. We wrestle with sin because of who we know we have been called to be in Jesus, not because we're afraid somehow we have to earn God's love.

It's a very different foundation than the world will give you. Very, very different foundation than a lot of families have. A lot of families are born into families where you have to earn your parents' smile. If you're not good enough, if you're not good enough, you don't know if mom or dad are gonna love you tomorrow. Some children, sadly, are born into families that they don't know that their dad loves them and wants what's good for them.

But we never have to doubt that with our Heavenly Father. Ever. And the Holy Spirit takes this promise, takes the love of our Father in Heaven, and shows us it's proven in Jesus, and applies it in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So my question to you is, are you resting in God's love as he's shown it in Jesus. Do you rejoice in Jesus? Do you find your life hidden in Christ? That's where you'll find grace and peace. That's where you'll flourish in your Christian life. The foundations are of grace. Our boast is in Christ.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are no tyrant over us, but you are a wonderful God, even saving the ungodly like us. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to know that your grace has been shown to sinners like us and transform us from the inside out. Lord, please, Please, Father, comfort our hearts because of who you are.

If there are things that I have said that were wrong today, Lord, I am a sinful man with sinful lips. I doubt every syllable or sentence I said was right. Father, I pray that your people might go to your word and find out whether these things are so. And where I may be wrong, I pray that they might have the courage even to confront me. But Lord, if what has been said this morning is in alignment with your word, may you please let it bear great fruit in your people's lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.