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Living Water

The Unhindered Gospel

Daniel Pel

Something or Someone?

Father in heaven, we are so grateful to be here.

We're so grateful to commence this week of prayer at Fountain View Academy.

Thank you, Lord, for this privilege of sharing your word.

I want to pray that you will send your Holy Spirit to guide us.

May the Spirit that inspired the writers of old to record Scripture, may that same Spirit teach us tonight and throughout this week.

Lord, I know that in me there is not this ability to communicate your truth, but it is only because of your Spirit that this is possible.

And so I ask that you'll be with us in a very special way, that you will speak to us, for I pray this in the precious name of Jesus Christ.

Alright, so turn in your Bibles to the book of Acts.

Now we're going to get into Romans chapter 1, but I want to start our time together in the book of Acts.

Go to the very last chapter of the book of Acts, and that is, does anyone know how many chapters the book of Acts has?

Acts 28, turn with me there, and we're going to look at the very last verses of that chapter.

Now, talking about the Apostle Paul, and he finds himself here in Rome, not by his own decision, but he was actually a, he was taken captive, and as you might record, recall the story, and he appealed to Caesar, and so to Caesar he went, and here he is in Rome, and he writes, we read the following about the Apostle Paul in the very last 2 verses of the book of Acts.

Acts chapter 28 beginning in verse 30, and listen to what it says, Then Paul dwelt 2 whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no 1 forbidding him." It's interesting, when you look at the Greek, in the Greek language, the last word in the book of Acts is the word akkolutos, and you know what it means?

So if you look at the original writing, the Book of Acts was written in the Greek language by Luke, which also wrote the Gospel of Luke, and the very last word that is recorded there in the Book of Acts, of course it's different in the English language, but in the original language the last word is the word unhindered.

Isn't it interesting that we have the book of Acts which is the story of the preaching of the gospel in the first century and all stuff is going on.

I mean you go through these chapters, it's 1 of the most exciting stories that you can ever read.

It's 1 of my favorite books in the Bible.

And you know, you read about how the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them in the upper room and how they go forth and they speak in different languages.

And everyone is hearing the Gospel and the sick are being healed and churches are being raised and opposition comes.

And you know, Paul the Apostle that once was the great persecutor of the church becomes the greatest apostle of the church and he goes forth into unentered territory.

He gets beaten and all this stuff happens to him, but despite of all the opposition, the gospel goes forth, say it for me, unhindered.

It's kind of the theme of the book of Acts, the unhindered gospel.

And every time that the enemy thinks that he has got, is able to hold back the gospel, something happens and God intervenes and what seemed to stop the gospel actually even empowers the gospel.

You know, the the Apostle Paul is just this amazing guy really through the, moved by the Holy Spirit, used by the Holy Spirit, he was really unstoppable.

You know, if you would say to Paul, if they would say to Paul, Paul we're going to beat you, he would say, well I do not consider the sufferings of this life to be compared with the glory to come.

And you know if they would say to Paul, well you know we're going to kill you, he would say to die as Christ.

If they would say, okay we'll keep you alive, he would say, you know, what would he say?

So for him either to die, to die as Gain, or to live as Christ, it didn't really matter.

If they would say to him, well, we'll put you in the prison, he said, well, I'll sing and convert the guards.

You know, there was no way to stop Paul in his preaching.

It went forth, the gospel went forth unhindered.

Now this is interesting that despite of the difficulties, And especially when you come to the end of the book, it was a very, very challenging situation that Paul found himself in.

As a matter of fact, in Acts chapter 28, you read how Paul is now a captive in Rome.

In other words, he's not free to walk around.

He's not free to go out into the marketplace as he did many times and just witness to the people there.

He's not free to move into a city and to go into the synagogue and preach to the Jews and the Gentiles.

He is now limited, as a matter of fact he cannot leave his house, he is waiting for for this trial before Nero, the great Caesar of those days, the great ruler of the Roman Empire.

But while he is waiting in his house, in a home that was rented there in Rome, the Bible tells us that he preached the kingdom of God with confidence and that the gospel went forth unhindered.

What the enemy thought that this was the end of the story, but it wasn't.

As a matter of fact, the last word in the Book of Acts is the word unhindered, and here we are in 2013.

Here we are at Fountainview Academy in Canada.

How many of you were in Rome this summer, by the way?

To just see those sites and to just, you know, understand a little bit more about that history?

But just imagine, you know, this is the first century.

This is, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years ago.

This is 2, 000 years ago and here we are and we can look back and we can see that despite of the imprisonment of Paul, the apostle, that the gospel has gone forth unhindered ever since, throughout the centuries, right up to 2013.

And you know, the promise was given in the beginning of the Book of Acts that the gospel would go to the uttermost parts of the earth.

I consider Canada kind of to be in that category.

I mean isn't this the uttermost parts of the earth?

You know I was Last last April someone called I got a call to do an evangelistic series in the north of Norway and So my wife and I were we were flying in this plane to the north of Norway, and I had a window seat and I was looking outside and the only thing I could see was just ice and ice and snow and I thought that, you know, are there any people to witness to where we're going?

And eventually we land and it looked really like the middle of, well, the end of the world, but we had a great time.

And I thought to myself when we were doing this series of meetings there in the north of Norway, I thought, what an amazing promise.

I mean, here you have 2, 000 years ago, Jesus says to his disciples, wait in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit is gonna come upon you, you're gonna go forth preaching in Judea and Samaria and into the uttermost parts of the earth, and that happened, amen?

And you sharing the gospel here in Canada, sharing the gospel throughout the world, you're actually fulfilling that promise, amen?

Now just turn 1 page over to Romans chapter 1, and I know I have limited time here, so we're just going to basically just draw 1 lesson from Romans chapter 1 this evening, and it's going to be from verse 25.

There is A lie that the enemy has succeeded in convincing people of that hinders them from experiencing the power of the gospel.

"...who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, " and here now he describes it, "...and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever, amen.

What Paul says is the gospel is being hindered because people are worshipping the creature rather than the Creator.

Now let us try to unpack this just for a moment.

You know, when we think back of the original gifts that God gave to the human race in the very beginning, What were some of those gifts?

Let's go all the way back 6, 000 years to creation.

When God created this world, what were some of the gifts that He gave to mankind in the beginning?

They could go out and they could eat, right?

A Pattern or a Person?

Father in heaven, thank you so much for this moment.

Thank you so much that we can come before you.

And we would not want to open your word without first opening our hearts.

Lord, as we open our hearts, I pray that you will indeed speak to us as we have just sung together, and that Your Word may come alive this evening.

May it not return to you void, but accomplish that in which You please.

All right, well, take your Bibles this evening and turn with me to the book of Romans right there in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then you get the book of Acts, and right after the book of Acts we have the book of Romans, and turn to Romans chapter 12.

We're going to be in chapter 2 and 3, but I want to first go to a verse in chapter 12 as we set the stage for our presentation this evening, Romans the 12th chapter, and take a look at verse 2.

Romans 12 and verse 2, and when you're there you can say hallelujah.

Romans chapter 12 verse 2 says, and do not be conformed to this what?

To this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." So we have the words written for us here, and these words tell us that we are not to be conformed to this world.

The Greek word for conformed, and you don't have to remember this, this is a difficult 1, I don't even know if I'm pronouncing it right, I'm not a theologian, I'm just a lay preacher, but it says, sys shematio, and I don't, you don't have to remember that, but this is what it means, and this is important.

It means to conform oneself to a pattern.

So when it says in Romans chapter 12 and verse 2, don't be conformed to this world, it says that we are not to be conformed to the pattern of this world.

And in our presentation yesterday, as we looked at a teaching from Romans chapter 1, we discovered that there is a fundamental problem with humanity.

And that fundamental problem with humanity is that we tend to worship the created thing rather than the Creator.

We tend to, our affections belong more to the things that God created than to God himself, the giver of those things.

And we used a couple of illustrations yesterday.

We talked about food, we talked about work, we talked about, you know, our physical bodies, and how we oftentimes stop at those gifts.

You know, we like good food, but we don't really always thank the giver of that.

And we like to do work, but sometimes the glory of that work goes to us and not to God.

And even physical exercise is often time abused when you look at competitive sports and things like that.

So the gift is taken out of its frame in which God has given it and what happens to that gift, that gift is perverted.

Now this is a fundamental problem that humanity is experiencing and it is displayed there in the first chapter of the Book of Romans.

Now as we turn to Romans chapter 2, and you can turn there with me, we're going to continue our study tonight, because what we are going to find out is that this is a problem that is not just a problem to those that do not know God.

As a matter of fact, this problem slips in very easily even into those that are professing to follow God.

So turn to Romans chapter 2, and I want you to take notice what it says in verse 1, Romans chapter 2 and verse 1.

If you're there, let me hear you say amen.

I don't want to move too fast, but you guys are young, you're fast.

Maybe not so fast in running, but fast in getting to the place in your Bible.

I won't teach you all week with that, you just have to prove to me that you can really exercise, okay?

Tomorrow you're going to be ready, right?

Okay Romans chapter 2 verse 1, listen to what it says.

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for whatever you judge another you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things." Now you've got to remember that when the book of Romans was written, Paul didn't write chapter 1 and said, okay, it's enough for today.

You know, I've done my homework and I'll go to bed now and tomorrow I'll write Romans chapter 2.

This was not how the letters of Paul were written.

As a matter of fact, later on, people that basically compiled the Bible together and the books together, they gave the chapter divisions in order for us to more easily find passages.

So sometimes it's very helpful as you study the Bible to kind of not think too much about those chapter divisions.

And so basically the thought of Paul is just continuing into chapter 2.

And so in chapter 1 we have this portrayal of this great human problem that there is a worship of the creator rather than the creator.

And then Paul in Romans chapter 2 and verse 1 in the continual thought he writes and he says, but you who think you're okay, you're actually in the same situation.

You that judge others, you're actually being judged yourself.

Now, what Paul does here in the Book of Romans in chapter 2 and also chapter 3 is he describes the problem of all humanity, both those that believe in God but also, or those that deny God, but also those that actually believe in God.

Now it's talking here about the Jews, but of course, you know, we could, yeah, it would be easy to narrow it down and just say, okay, that's about the Jews, so it doesn't talk about us.

But I think that the description of the Jew in Romans chapter 2 is really a description of the believer today.

I want you to take notice of as we drop down in Romans chapter 2, drop down to verse 23 and 24.

Paul writing to the people there in Rome, both to the Jews and the Gentiles, the believers and the unbelievers, and he says in verse 23, you who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law?

For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." So there's a problem and the problem is not just with the unbelievers that are worshiping the Creator rather than the Creator, the problem is also within God's church.

And though you are judging the other, you're actually doing the same thing.

He goes on and he describes in the last part of the chapter, take notice of verse 28 and 29, He says, for he is not a Jew who is 1, what does it say, outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is 1, what?

Inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God.

Now, Paul is getting to something very critical here, and sometimes we can sweep away those passages and we say, well, this was in the old covenant, and it's talking here about circumcision, And those were something that the Jews used to do and this was a problem that they faced in the first century because the Jews still wanted to go on with their patterns of religion but this has little to do with me today.

And you, we can take this passage and we can apply it to us because what's the problem here?

The underlying problem that Paul is describing is that the Jews they had an outward form of religion but they lacked the inward change.

They had the outward form but they didn't have the heart, the change of heart.

And this is exactly what Paul is tapping into here and that is so relevant for you and for me.

Because we can have the right outward pattern of religion.

We can do the right things at the right time, we can go to the right places, and we can say the right things, but is there really, has God really been able to impact our hearts?

I titled this message this evening, a pattern or a person?

And that's a question that each of us has to answer.

In our walk, have we conformed to a pattern of religion or have we actually accepted a person into our lives and that person being Jesus Christ?

This is the big question that we all need to ask and in order for the gospel to go forth unhindered in your life, You must make sure that you have accepted a person and not merely a pattern.

Now we're going to kind of flesh this out and we're going to try to understand this a little bit better here.

In Romans chapter 3 and verse 23, there's a very well-known verse.

I'm sure when I read this verse that many of you will go, yes, I've heard that verse before.

It says the following, Romans chapter 3 and verse 23.

And maybe you can even finish it if I start it.

Let's see if you can do that without looking in your Bible.

For all have sinned, can anyone finish that?

So this is what Paul says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Now, it's interesting, in the book of Romans, which is this amazing picture of the gospel, Paul uses 3 chapters, the first 3 chapters, and we don't have time to read it all through, but you can go back and you can read it.

But in 3 chapters, he displays the condition of humanity and the condition of believer, or those that are following a religious pattern, he displays their condition, but he shows them how they are lacking a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.

You see, the good news of the gospel is only as good as the bad news is bad.

And that's why it's so important for Paul that first of all we understand what we are without Christ so that we actually start appreciating Christ.

You know in our world today sometimes when we do evangelism we go to people and we say Jesus saves and people say well that's fine but I don't need salvation, I don't need to be saved Because they don't understand their condition without Christ.

And so the message Jesus saves means very little if they don't understand first the condition they're in without Jesus.

And so that's why in the book of Romans, in such an amazing way, in the first chapter, the second chapter, and the third chapter, Paul describes the condition of all humanity, not just those that are denying God altogether, but even those that are following religious patterns but have not experienced the person of Christ.

And then he sums it up in chapter 3 and he says, we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

That includes everyone, every single 1 of us sitting here tonight, every single 1 of us, including myself, have fallen short.

And it's so important for us to understand this because the good news is only as good as the bad news is bad.

I'll give you 2 illustrations and I think this will help you to understand this.

A Perfect Mirror

Heavenly Father, what a great privilege it is to come before you and to call you our Father.

Lord, what a great privilege it is to open your Word.

And I do pray that as we open your Word that you will open our hearts, that you will open our mind, and that Lord, the very truth that you have in store for us that you will instill it in us that it may not just merely be a theoretical truth that we understand with our minds but a truth that we embrace with our hearts and experience in our lives.

And so we ask for a double portion of your spirit this evening, and we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, well we are in our series, The Unhindered gospel, and we've already come to our third presentation here in our evening meetings here.

We started on Sunday with our first presentation, yesterday our second, and here we are already come to our third presentation.

And I titled this message for this evening, A Perfect Mirror.

And what we're going to do is we're going to pick up basically where we left off yesterday, and we're going to continue to examine the role of God's law, the 10 Commandments, in the life of a Christian.

And I have actually preached this message in a variety of countries.

A couple of months ago I preached it in Germany, I presented it in Norway, I presented it in actually quite a number of different countries in Europe.

And the feedback that I've gotten, you know, some messages you get more feedback than others, and this was 1 of the ones where I've had people come up to me, and this is not to my glory, it's to the glory of God, but that have said, now that was very, very helpful.

I've always wondered about the role of the 10 Commandments in the life of a Christian, this just really clarified it for me.

And so that is my prayer, that that will have the same effect this evening.

What is the role of the 10 Commandments in the life of a Christian.

And so that is my prayer that that will have the same effect this evening.

What is the role of the 10 Commandments in the life of a Christian?

And we're gonna examine that together as we study God's Word.

Now this is going to be real, a Bible study, so I hope you have your Bibles with you.

You're going to need it, so if you don't have a Bible, make sure you sit next to someone that does so that you can follow along.

And we are going to begin our journey together in the book of Romans, where we have, that's the book that we've been studying together, and turn to Romans chapter 3, Romans chapter 3, and we're gonna read verse 19 and 20.

We already looked at these verses in our presentation yesterday.

We're going to read them again, and then we're going to continue to develop this theme of the 10 Commandments in the life of the Christian.

And here already we have a picture of what the 10 Commandments do, what the law is given for.

And I'm reading here from the New King James, and you can read along in the version that you have.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, and this expression is coming back a number of times in Scripture, and we're going to look at what that exactly means, to be under the law.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, and His, that's capital H, that's talking about God.

For by the law is, what does your Bible say?

So according to these 2 verses here in Romans 3, verses 19 and 20, what is the role of the law?

The law, through the law comes a knowledge of sin.

I mean, if we would not have the law, just think about if we removed the law, we would not know what sin is.

You know, when you think about it, the gospel is good news, that's basically what the word means.

The gospel is good news about a savior, right, that saves us from sin, but how do we know what sin is?

We know what sin is because we have a law that defines what sin is.

Now, and this is very, what has happened in Christianity today, whenever the law is removed, it gets really, really difficult to even define what the Gospel is, because it's like a domino effect.

So we have, again, we have the Gospel, which means the good news, of a Savior that saves us from sin, and sin is defined by the law.

You have a gospel, good news, about a savior that saves, but you don't know what he's gonna save you from.

And if you don't know what he's gonna save you from, well, what's actually the good news, right?

So it's very important, the first role of the law, and we find it right here in Romans chapter 3 verse 19 and 20, is to define for us what sin is.

Now, we're gonna look a little closer here.

Yesterday I used this illustration about the law is like a mirror.

That when you look into the mirror, it's like, you know, looking into the law is like looking into a mirror and the law is not to show you how righteous you are, but actually how unrighteous you are.

It's like looking in the mirror, and you recognize that you're dirty, that there's something wrong, and the law is there to show that.

It's 1 of those mirrors that reveals everything.

If you ever, you know, yeah, you guys travel here at Fountainview and you know you stay at different places and different homes that you come into or different hotels or places, you have different mirrors and some mirrors they seem to reveal more than others.

And for some reason, sometimes the light is just, you know, really in such a way, and the mirror is in such a way, that you see everything.

And for some reason, ladies still like to look into those mirrors, I don't know why.

But some mirrors, they reveal everything, you know what I'm saying?

And the law of God is such a mirror, it reveals everything about your life, everything.

Everything about your shortcomings, everything about your sin.

It goes so deep that it shows the very motives of your heart and it shows that we are in need of a Savior.

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