The Gospel By Paul Thompson

I feel that this morning we should concentrate on the Gospel
and I'm taking as my text
Romans chapter 1 verse 16
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel
for it is the power of God unto salvation
to all who believe.
Now we'll attempt to use the overhead
so that if you get lost
what I'm trying to say
you'll be able to follow it
briefly up here
and I think it will quit.
I think it's not in here.
That's the wrong way.
OK.
OK then, what comes into our mind when we think of the Gospel?
I'm not referring to the four Gospels
but I'm referring to the Gospel.
Paul uses the Gospel 66 times in his letters.
The only epistle that he doesn't use it in is in Titus.
The Gospel is connected with an Anglo-Saxon word
and it could be turned God's spell or God's story.
Good news, glad tidings.
And firstly we see
and what we'll do is we'll use the book of Romans
and in particular the first six chapters
to see Paul unfold this Gospel.
His Gospel, the Gospel of God to us.
And the first thing we see is that the Gospel is promised.
He says in verse 2 of chapter 1
and if you follow with me
in the Word of God as we go through
which he promised beforehand
by his prophets in the Old Testament.
So the Gospel was nothing new.
It was what the Jews were looking for and waiting for
and God has not changed his way of dealing with men.
He didn't change his way of dealing with men
when Jesus Christ came.
And the Gospel is proclaimed by God.
It's a message from the very heart of God.
It's the message of the New Testament.
The Gospel runs throughout the New Testament
and in fact throughout the Old Testament.
The Gospel in a sense brought the church into being.
The Gospel has enabled the church
to weather the storms of history for 2,000 years.
And I wonder how much longer the church will be here
before it's taken up by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Gospel is a message that's ever present,
ever new, ever fresh for our generation.
It's not like stale bread.
It's fresh and new.
And the Gospel is the power of God as we've seen.
The Gospel is the power of God under salvation.
Did you know that there are more people alive today
who haven't heard the Gospel than have died
since Christ rose from the dead?
It's quite a profound piece of information, isn't it?
There are more people alive today who haven't heard the Gospel
than who have died since Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
So our Gospel, as Paul says in chapter 1 of verse 1,
is the Gospel of God.
Our Gospel is a God-centered Gospel
because God is at the very center of the message.
But the Gospel is not only good news, it's bad news.
When I go to the doctor,
he usually tells me the bad news first, doesn't he?
I'm going to amputate the neck or cut off my leg
or put me in hospital or do something terrible.
And then he tells me the good news.
Well, you know, you'll only be in there for six weeks
or you'll only have to do this or that.
It's bad news before it's good news
and that's the way God's designed it.
And the Gospel is a bit like money.
If I go into a shop with some Monopoly money
and I try and buy a loaf of bread,
I won't get very far, will I?
A shopkeeper will say to me,
excuse me, Paul, this is not the real thing.
So it's the same with the Gospel.
We need as Christians today, if never before,
to be able to distinguish between the real thing.
We hear so much about the six who are peddling another Gospel
and we need as Christians to know the Gospel through and through
and in particularly the genuine article.
So let's begin then by saying
that the Gospel is firstly a message about God.
The Gospel is a message about God.
God is creator of this world.
The Gospel starts where the Bible starts, at Genesis.
The Gospel tells us about his character,
his standards that he requires of us.
In the beginning, God made the heaven and the earth.
And Paul, when he's writing this letter to the Romans,
as you'll notice as we read in chapter one,
speaks a lot about God and his creation.
In verse 20, he says,
for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead.
So they are without excuse.
We owe our very existence to God.
We're always in his hands, we're always under his eye.
He made us to worship him, to enjoy him,
to be in a relationship with him.
So the message of the Gospel begins with God.
And we can follow Paul's example here
because he, if nobody else,
apart from our Lord Jesus Christ, of course,
knew how to communicate this Gospel to men and women.
You remember what he,
the message that he gave to the Athenians at Antioch?
I'll read it to you.
Remember they had that strange statue
to an unknown God.
And they came around Paul and they said,
now we want to hear what you've got to say.
We hear you've got some new message.
We want to hear what this new message is.
And what does Paul do?
He starts his message by talking about God as Creator.
He says in verse 24 of Acts 17,
God that made the world and all things therein,
seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands,
neither is worshiped by men's hands.
As though he needed anything,
seeing he giveth to him all life and bread,
and all things.
So the Gospel is a message about God,
that God is Creator.
God is Creator of this world, of everything in it,
and God created man.
Remember what the word of God says
in the beginning of the Bible at Genesis,
God made man in his own image.
Man was made in the image of God
to reflect God's image.
God was made to have a relationship with God.
You remember that in the Garden of Eden,
God could speak to man, man could hear,
there was no breakdown in communication.
Man was not fearful of seeing God.
And we read in verse 23 of Romans chapter one,
that man has changed the glory of the incorruptible God
into an image like to corruptible man.
So we see that at the very beginning of our Gospel message,
we need to tell men and women about who God is,
that he is Creator, and that he made us.
We hear a lot of talk in educational circles about evolution.
The Bible doesn't give one shred of evidence concerning evolution.
The Bible states quite clearly that God is the Creator.
And 20th century man will not understand his sinful condition
or the fact that Jesus Christ has saved him from his sins
unless he first understands that God has made him,
that God has made this world.
Only then will the fact that he is broken,
his relationship with God because of sin,
will that begin to make sense to him.
And you ask any child about their father or their mother,
they'll be able to sit down and in great detail,
and maybe a great link, tell you all about Mummy and Daddy,
what they do, what their likes are, their dislikes.
They'll know implicitly all about them.
But you ask somebody who doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ,
who isn't in a relationship with God, what God is like.
And they won't have the foggiest idea.
They won't be able to tell you that God made them,
that God is Creator.
Because sadly they're not in a relationship with them.
So foundational to the Christian message, to the Gospel,
even before we can begin with telling men about sin,
about what Christ has done, about repentance and faith,
is the fact that God is Creator,
that God has made us.
Secondly, and we might move down, thanks Charlie,
would, is that the Gospel is a message about sin.
And now we're really getting to the bad news, aren't we?
Sin is breaking God's word, God's standard, God's law.
Say I ask a cabinet maker to make me a beautiful table.
He spends hours on this table, he planes the top,
he French polishes it, and then by accident,
something happens and there's a big terrible scratch
gets on the top, somehow or other, piece of wood drops on it,
gets knocked or something like that.
That perfectly made table has been marred,
it no longer reflects its beauty, it's been damaged.
And it's a bit the same way with man.
The sinful man, the man who doesn't know God,
doesn't reflect God's image, it's been broken.
So we see that God not only made us,
but that God gave us a commandment or a law.
You remember what God said in the Garden of Eden?
He said to Adam, you must not eat from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil,
or if you eat of it, you will die.
God gave a command, a law.
Remember what Paul says in Romans 3, 23?
For the wages of sin are death,
sin pays wages, and those wages are death.
And so we see that God has given man
an inflexible standard, a yardstick.
Now say I wanna go into the police force,
and I find out all about the requirements that are needed,
and I find that the standard is five foot eight.
I'm not sure, but I think that's the height
that I have to be, but I'm only five foot.
Now how the hell am I going to be able to qualify
if I can't even come up to the mark?
I made him too short.
And that's the same with God's standards, God's law.
We fall short because of who we are,
because of what we have done.
And so we see that we cannot come up to God's standard,
and we read some of those ugly sins, didn't we,
in Romans chapter one, that are just so terrible,
and they're against the law of God.
And we see that there are many people in our society today
who are not concerned with God's law, with God's standard.
We see an increase in lawlessness,
in crime has reached terrible proportions
because people are not aware of God's standard,
of God's law, they have no reference point.
And there are other verses that we could read to see this.
So we see that the message,
the gospel is a message about sin, what sin is,
and why do we sin?
Why do we sin?
And the Bible tells us we sin because of that chap, Adam.
Now a lot of people will try and tell you today
that Adam really wasn't a chap,
he was a bit of a myth, like Jesus.
But Adam was a real dinkum bloke,
he walked on this earth, he lived, he breathed the air.
And whether we like it or not,
the Bible says that we're all related to Adam.
And it's a bit of a sad story.
You might like to tune to Romans chapter five and verse 12.
And it's as though Paul is trying to put off
telling the Romans the bad news.
But he just gets to that stage
where he can't contain himself anymore
and he's just got to tell them.
And he says in verse 12 of Romans chapter five,
therefore as by one man sin entered into the world.
Now who is that man?
That man is Adam.
And death by sin.
And so death passed to all men.
Not some men, all men, for that all have sinned.
Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses.
Even over them that have not sinned
after the simpletude of Adam's transgression,
who is a figure of him that who is to come.
And he goes on to talk further about sin.
He says there, therefore as by the offense of one judgment
came upon all to condemnation,
as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners.
Therefore the law entered that the offense might abound.
That as sin has reigned unto death,
so we see man's terrible condition because of Adam.
When Adam sinned, we sinned.
We sinned because of Adam.
And thirdly we see what is God's attitude towards sin.
God's attitude towards sin is judgment, isn't it?
God would have been perfectly just
in sending each one of us to hell.
Perfectly just.
But yet we'll see later what he has done for us
in his great mercy.
And what does Paul tell the Romans in his letter?
He says in chapter one and verse 23.
No, I've got the wrong verse.
He says in chapter two and verse one there,
therefore they are without excuse,
oh men, whosoever thou judgest.
For therein thou judgest another, you condemn yourselves.
For thou hast judgest thou the same things.
For we are sure that the judgment of God
is according to truth,
against them which commit such things.
So the judgment of God is according to truth,
according to his standard.
And we see that he says in verse 16 of chapter two,
in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men
by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
So the gospel is a message about sin.
What sin is?
That God has given us a law.
Why we sin and God's attitude to sin, which is judgment.
And of course, God will send those that have not believed
on the Lord Jesus Christ to hell.
There is a hell waiting for sinners.
If this building was to catch on fire at this very moment,
the first person to realize it would shout
at the top of their lungs, wouldn't they?
Fire, fire, quick, everybody out.
And we would all rush.
Some would maybe go out the windows, some out the doors,
because we would be in terrible danger
of being burnt alive.
And this is exactly the condition of the sinner.
He is in terrible danger of being burnt up
in those fiery flames of hell.
That's his condition.
Before God.
So we see that the gospel is not only a message about God,
a message about sin, but it's a message about the person
of Jesus Christ and his work.
Thank you, Charlie.
We see that it is a message about the person of Christ.
And so we need to tell people that Christ was born.
Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.
And how does Paul begin his letter?
He says in chapter one and verse three,
concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.
So Jesus Christ was related.
To his mother and father.
He was not only God, but that he was man.
He had an earthly mother and father.
It's very important that we tell people
that Jesus Christ was not only God,
but that he was a man.
That he lived and that he walked on this earth.
That he was an historical person.
And if we was to sit down with maybe some atheist
or some communist or various other people,
and they would say, no, Jesus Christ was a myth.
Jesus Christ was just a good bloke, you know,
one that'll just put a pardon in your pocket.
We would be able to prove from history,
even without looking at the Bible,
that Jesus Christ was an historical person.
There is sufficient evidence to prove that.
So we see that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.
He was born sinless.
He was born under the law of God,
yet he didn't break the law of God.
He lived a perfect and righteous life.
So we see that unless we tell people about his birth,
his death, his miraculous death, his resurrection,
his ascension won't make sense to them.
For what does it say?
God so loved the world that he sent his only beloved son.
Jesus Christ is the son of God.
And next, the gospel is a message about the work of Christ,
what Christ has done.
The gospel is a message about the work of Christ.
Christ lived as man so that he might die for man.
And so we need to tell people not only that Christ was man,
but that Christ was God,
and that he died a death for man.
Say I was to introduce you to somebody.
I would tell that person your name.
I would introduce you to that person.
Take John as an instance here, I would say.
This is John Keyes.
And then I'd most probably tell you something
about who he is.
John works for the university.
That's his job.
In the same way, when we're sharing the gospel
with people, we need to tell them
who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he has done.
There's a lovely verse, isn't there,
that tells us that there is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
and sinners plunge beneath the flood,
lose all their guilty stains.
Christ's death, although it happened in the past,
has present repercussions.
Christ's blood is still war.
Christ's blood is still sufficient
to save men from their sins.
Isn't that a wonderful fact,
that Christ's blood is still sufficient
to save men from their sins.
Now Christ died as a representative.
Christ died for us.
He had you and I in mind.
He stood in our place.
His death is the grounds on which God can forgive sinners.
God can forgive you and I only on the basis
of what Jesus Christ has done.
He was a sacrifice.
He was a fulfillment, wasn't he,
of the Old Testament sacrifices.
He was a substitute.
You remember the story of Isaac,
and when Abraham was about to put Isaac upon the altar,
God, in a wonderful and miraculous way,
provided a substitute, a lamb.
So we see that Christ was not only born,
born of a Virgin Mary, not only man,
not only God that he could die for our sin
and take the penalty for our sin,
take the judgment and the curse
and the wrath of God upon himself,
but that he was buried and that he rose again.
The power that rose Jesus Christ from the dead
is the power that saves you and me.
The Holy Spirit that rose the Lord Jesus Christ
from the dead is the same Holy Spirit that saves us,
that causes us to be born again.
And what does Paul say in his letter?
He can't help but mention it,
even at the very beginning in verse four of chapter one,
and declared to be the Son of God with power
according to the Spirit of holiness, the Holy Spirit,
by the resurrection from the dead,
by whom we have received grace and apostleship
for obedience to the saints.
So we can praise God that he has risen
the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.
So we must be careful that we don't separate
these things out, that we don't separate his death
from his burial or most importantly from his resurrection.
Now we must hurry on very quickly.
The gospel is a summons to faith and repentance.
Say I'm driving along the road, what's the speed limit?
35 miles an hour.
And I get picked up for driving 40.
Now I'm gonna get a summons, aren't I?
The traffic officer is going to write me out
one of those terrible little tickets
and I'm going to receive a little pink
or whatever colored slip it is in the post office
and it's going to require me to appear in court
on a certain date, I'm gonna get a summons.
And this is exactly what the gospel is.
The gospel is a summons to faith and repentance,
to faith and repentance.
God commands, God pleads,
God exhorts us that we repent.
And Paul mentions this throughout the book of Romans.
But we see that the sinner stands guilty before God.
So I'm brought before the judge because of my speeding fine
and he says, do you have anything to say in evidence?
Do you have anything, do you have a case to put before you?
And there's nothing I can do
because I am guilty before God.
The evidence is overwhelming
and it's just the same way with the sinner.
He is guilty before God.
So we see then that God commands us
to faith and repentance.
But yet we also see that although God commands us
to faith and repentance because we are sinners,
we cannot believe or repent because of our condition,
because of our spiritual condition, we are dead.
If there was say to be a dead man,
say here this morning,
there would be nothing that we could do
to bring him back to life, sad and tragic as it is.
And we could call all we like,
plead with him to come back to life.
But it would be impossible, we know,
for him to come back to life.
But yet when God calls a man,
when God calls a man back to life,
when God calls a man to faith and repentance,
we see that the Holy Spirit convicts him of his sin.
He hears the voice of God.
God puts his finger upon him and says,
I am calling you, I am calling you to faith and repentance.
What does Paul say in Romans chapter five?
He says in Romans chapter five and verse six,
for when we were without strength in due time,
Christ died for us.
In Romans chapter seven, he says,
for we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin.
In Romans chapter eight, verse eight, he says,
so then they that are on the flesh can't please God.
And the man who's spiritually dead,
who's a sinner, can't please God.
He can't obey God's command to repentance and faith.
And yet we ask, why has God commanded men
to repentance and faith if they can't do it?
Well, who are we to argue with scripture?
This is the wonderful thing of God's gospel.
God's gospel will shut men up to God.
It will hedge around them.
It will put them in such a condition
that they have nowhere to go, but to flee to Christ.
They will be forced to see their own sinfulness,
their own hopelessness, apart from Christ saving them.
They will be driven to Christ.
They will be driven to their knees.
They will be broken down.
They will cry over their sin
and they will see the wonder and the glory of Christ.
We all remember the pilgrim's progress, don't we?
And where pilgrim is standing at the foot of the cross
and he sees the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross
and his burden that's so heavy upon his shoulder,
when he sees Christ and when he puts his faith in Christ,
that burden rolls away, that burden of sin
rolls down the hill and he's a free man
because of Christ and what Christ has done
and the fact that he is now able to trust Christ.
So the gospel is a summons not only to faith,
but to repentance.
We are to call men to faith and to repentance.
Now I must hurry on because we are out of time.
It's beginning to get warm.
Let's consider then our position as regards to gospel.
The gospel we said is the power of God unto salvation.
Paul says that I am not ashamed of the gospel.
What shall we do about this gospel?
Are we ashamed of the gospel of Christ?
Is our gospel the gospel that is set forward
in the word of God?
We need to bring our gospel that we share with people
to the standard of the word of God
because it is only the message that is revealed
in God's word that is the power of God, isn't it?
The message that the Holy Spirit authorized
is the message and the only message
that can be the power of God.
And when that message which has been authorized
by the Holy Spirit, which is in the word of God
is proclaimed by you and me,
then we will see God work in power.
We will see men broken down.
We will see their hard hearts broken.
We will see them come under a conviction of sin.
We will see a wonderful work of the Spirit of God
in convicting men of sin.
We will see men shut up unto God,
crying unto God to save them because of this message.
And I ask you friends this morning as I ask myself,
do we really love people?
Do we care that people are going to hell around about us
at this very moment, they stand under the judgment
and the wrath of God, they have a ticket to hell.
Friends, that's their destiny now.
Why are we here this morning?
Why is this building here?
Why is this church here?
It's here because God has saved us,
because God has had mercy upon us,
because we have trusted in Christ and God has shown us
our need of him.
So we see that this church is here, that we are here
to tell men and women about God and about the gospel.
Let's stop making excuses to each other and to God.
God doesn't accept excuses.
And let's not harden our hearts against the word of God,
but let's take up that great commission
to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
Let's pray and let's ask God to lay upon us one person.
Do you think we can ask God to lay upon our hearts
one person that we might begin to pray for
and covet with God that he might save us?
You know, Robert Mueller prayed with a man,
I think it was for 66 years, he prayed for that man
to come to faith in Christ.
And it was only when Robert Mueller,
that great Englishman who did the work with the orphanages,
who did the work with the orphanages,
it was only when Robert Mueller was being lowered
into the grave and the epitaph concerning
his wonderful life of faith, it was only then
that the man that he had been praying for for 66 years
came to faith in Jesus Christ.
Let's be persistent with our prayers.
What did Jesus say?
Keep on praying, keep on knocking, keep on asking.
So let's ask God to give us a burden for lost souls.
Maybe we can't go out on the street
but we can pray for people.
Maybe God's calling some of us to preach that gospel.
Maybe the Spirit of God this morning is saying,
I want you to preach my glorious gospel.
I want you to go into training.
I want you to go on the mission field
to tell people on other lands about the gospel.
Or I want you to tell that particular person,
maybe God is laying a particular burden
upon our hearts this morning,
a particular person that only you know about.
So we see then that God has given us this wonderful gospel.
God is the author of the gospel
and we have read and as we have seen,
for I am not ashamed of the gospel
for it is the power of God under salvation
to everyone who believe.
Maybe there is some soul here this morning
and we couldn't close, could we, without saying,
maybe there are some here this morning
who is outside of Jesus Christ,
who is under the condemnation, the judgment, the wrath.