Devotional talk #1 on the book of Romans given at the Community Hospital of SDA in Port of Spain, Trinidad, July 19, 2010

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Norman McNulty

The Power of the Gospel

Hello. Good morning everyone. Good morning. It's good to be here today. Today is actually my birthday, so I'm happy to, oh, happy to be here. To start off my birthday with the, the staff of community hospital. And I guess it's also special for me to be able to share on my birthday a worship talk from the book of Romans, which is one of my favorite books in the Bible. How many of you have studied the book of Romans before? So it's in the, for those of you who are studying Theist Sical lesson quarterly, we are going through the book of Romans as well in that, you know, to cover the book of Romans in five 15 minute talks is very difficult to do. So we're just gonna hit some high points, but I think these are the points that are the most important. There's probably some important points that we will leave out, but we are going to start today in Romans chapter one. So we're gonna start in the beginning of the book, and I think there are Bibles scattered throughout. Does anyone not have a Bible that would like to have a Bible? There's someone in the back there if we can get her a Bible all the way in the back. Okay, so before we start, I'm just gonna say a brief word of prayer and we'll get started. Father in heaven, thank you so much for the opportunity to study from the book of Romans. Bless us now as we study your word today. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. The book of Romans, if you could distill it down to one key concept, the book of Romans is about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the way I know that is by going to Romans chapter one verses 16 and 17. So turn with me to Romans one 16 and 17. And here Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it as the power of God to salvation, to everyone that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for their end, as the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Amen. Now, this is one of the most powerful passages in all of Christianity, and I want to just take a look at a few key concepts today. Number one, the gospel of Christ. And what about the gospel of Christ is the power of God and what does it mean for the righteousness of God to be revealed? And what does it mean to be just to live by faith as a just person? So those are the things in the next few minutes we're gonna look at. So first of all, Paul says, he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. That suggests that at least at the time that Paul wrote this epistle to the people at Rome, there was something to be ashamed of about the gospel. The gospel presented a message that Jesus Christ died for our sins and he is our savior. Well, in the minds of the people at that time, if your God is someone who died, that was shameful, but, but pulse is, no, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because the fact that Jesus died for us is what brings special power to the gospel. Amen. Now, when we talk about the gospel of Christ, Paul makes it very clear that the gospel of Christ is the power of God under salvation. How powerful is the power of God? God is all powerful. Amen. So the gospel is all powerful. Amen. The gospel is something more than than a lot of times we give it credit for True. The gospel is powerful. And so many times we as Christians make the gospel into and almost ordinary thing, like, praise the Lord, I Jesus died for my sins. I can keep on living the way I'm living. That's not what Paul is talking about here in the book of Romans. Paul is talking about a gospel that is so powerful that it brings salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And when you study Romans, the rest of Romans one and all of Romans two, which we don't have time to do today, you'll find it quite astonishing that there is any power in the world that could save sinners as wretched as Jews and Gentiles. Amen. You look at the Gentiles in chapter one, and it talks about how the wrath of God has poured out against the Gentiles for their wickedness. And then in chapter two, Paul says, wait a minute, Jesus don't think you're so good. You guys know the law and you're breaking it anyway. So by the time when you get to Romans chapter three, Paul says, all the world is guilty before God all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And yet, in Paul's introductory statement to the book of Romans, he says that the gospel is so powerful that it brings salvation to everyone who believes. Now this word power comes from the Greek word dunamus. And the other place that you see it in the New Testament is in Acts chapter one, verse eight, which in a nutshell, the disciples as they see Jesus for the last time before he goes to heaven, he says, you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and an EA and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. So the same power that allow the apostles to be witnesses to the whole world and their generation is the same power that is found in the gospel. Amen. Now, is there a problem if the 12 apostles were able to take the gospel to the whole world in their lifetime? Now how about us here? We have more than 12 people in this room. How is the power of the gospel working in our lives? Do we have that same power? Because it's the same power of the gospel that the power of the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles in the early Christian Church and they took that gospel as a witness to the world in their generation. Now, does the Bible say anything else about that for the end of time? Try. Matthew chapter 24, verse 14. Matthew 24, verse 14 says, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. And then shall the end come? Now the apostles in Acts chapter one verse eight, received power to be witnesses to the whole world in their generation. Matthew 24, Jesus says that the gospel will be a witness to the whole world and then the end shall come. Now, if we were to just put on television throughout the whole world so that the whole world could see Jesus died for your your sins, would that necessarily usher in the second coming of Jesus Christ based on Matthew 24? I think we've missed something. The key word of Matthew 24 is that the gospel will be a witness. So it's one thing to preach the theory of the gospel and say, Jesus died for our sins. We accept him as our savior. He will come back someday. If you accept him as your savior he'll, he will save you. And then we say, if we can just get that message to the whole world, Jesus will come. What Matthew 24 is saying is, is the gospel, the power of the gospel needs to be demonstrated through the lives of the people who are preaching it as a witness, and then the end will come. And that's what the apostles did in their generation. They were living witnesses of the power of the gospel. They received Pentecost. So when Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it as the power of God under salvation, that everyone that to everyone that believes this power is MOUs power. And the word MOUs means dynamite. And dynamite means that this power comes into the lives of sinful human beings like you and me. And it, it's explosive. It wipes away the power of sin in our lives and gives us the power of God that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then when you get to verse 17, it makes sense when it says, for their end is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written the Joshua by faith. Now, what is the righteousness of God? I mean, it's a simple answer. The righteousness of God is the righteousness of God. Amen. And where is the righteousness of God revealed In the gospel? So why is the gospel so powerful? Because it's a revelation of the righteousness of God. Amen. Now, is it possible that we as God's people have a gospel problem? Is the righteousness of God being revealed as a witness through our lives? Because that is the power of the gospel that Paul is talking about. Paul is saying the righteousness of God is so powerful that when it is revealed, it will change the lives of all those who believe in it to their salvation. Whether you are a Jew or a agenda, if you believe, if you have faith, and when it says it's revealed from faith to faith, what this is talking about is that in our faith experience, the more we grow, the more God's righteousness is revealed in us, which helps us to understand the parable of Mark 4 28, when Jesus speaks about the blade, then the corn, then the full corn in the ear. That plant is perfect at each stage of its growth, but eventually it reaches a point of full maturity where it bears fruit. And in our Christian experience, the righteousness of God can be revealed at each stage until we reach a point of full maturity. Now, let's get to the heart of the matter. Paul says, as as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now, just so you know that verse, that phrase is the phrase that started the Protestant reformation. Amen. Martin Luther studied the Bible and realized righteousness is not by works, it's by faith. We cannot save ourselves in our own strengths. True, but through the power of God, he He can save us and transform us. Amen. Now, what does it mean to be just and living by faith? Well, we've all heard these terms before, but at its most basic level, if you are just living by faith, that means you have the experience of justification by faith, right? Yes. If you are just living by faith, you have the experience of justification by faith. Now, this word just comes from the Greek word <unk> don't expect you to remember that. However, this same word which is used in the English translation as just is found several times to describe a key person who walked this earth in the New Testament. Do you know who that is? It's Jesus Christ. Let me give you three verses. Matthew 27 19. Pilot's, wife writes, pilot and says, have nothing to do with this just man, for I have suffered many things in a dream because of him. That same word just is the same in Romans, the just shall live by faith. Acts three 14, Peter is preaching. He says, you denied the holy and just one that's speaking of Jesus, the just one, the same word. And then in Steven's famous sermon to the Sanhedrin, in Acts 7 52, he speaks of the coming of the just one whom you have murdered in slain. Again, the same word. Now, let's think about this. Here we're talking about the same word. Jesus is described as just in his humanity. And this word means innocent, just or righteous. And Jesus was clearly all three of those. He was innocent, he was just, and he was righteous. Now, this is the incredible power and really the unbelievably good news of the gospel, the gospel is we can be just, we can be innocent, we can be just, we can be righteous as Jesus wask. Now, how does that work? Because we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Well, the good news is when we accept by faith Christ sacrifice, he forgives our sins, how we, that's more than what he does. Not only does he forgive our sins, he gives us power to live a just life. The life that he lived on this earth, which was a righteous life. That is the power of the gospel under salvation. The power of the gospel is not. If you accept Jesus as your savior, he covers you with a justifying righteousness while you keep sinning. That's not what Romans is teaching. What Romans is teaching is the power of the gospel is so powerful that when we by faith believe in the power of the gospel, we can live by faith, the same righteous life that Jesus lived. Amen. And I just have about two minutes here, so this is where I'm going to close. So what we've seen in a nutshell is justification by faith. The question is how is that possible? And I want to point you to one parallel passage found in Galatians chapter two, verse 16 and 20. Galatians two 16 says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. Now, I have a little diagram here. So what Galatians two 16 says, and I hope you can see it, is we are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. That's what Galatians two 16 says. Galatians two 20 builds on this concept because the question is, how is it that I can have faith and live the life of Christ here on this earth? Galatians two 20 says, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live yet, not I, but Christ liveth me and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now, who's the son of God? Jesus. Jesus Christ. How does Paul live when he is crucified with Christ by the faith of Jesus Christ? So notice this diagram. When I'm crucified, I live by the faith of Jesus Christ. When I'm crucified, Christ lives in me. And when he lives in me, he exercises his faith through me. Now, notice this, the faith of Jesus Christ equals the faith of Jesus Christ. See this diagram, here's point A, and here's point B. If A equals B down here, simple logic tells you if the faith of Jesus Christ equals the faith of Jesus Christ than being justified must be the same as being crucified. So how am I justified? How do I get justification by faith to be crucified with Christ when I'm crucified? Christ is living in me, which means that when I'm justified, Christ must also be living in me. That means justification by faith is more than an outward covering. It's to an inward experience. Now, what's interesting for those of you who are familiar with LM y in the book Selective Messages Volume one, page 360 6, she says, God requires the entire surrender of the heart before justification can take place. And in order for man to retain justification, there must be continual obedience through active living faith that works by love and purifies the soul. You know, at the very bottom line, heart of this message, in order to be justified, we need to surrender our lives to Jesus Christ every single day. That's why Paul says in first Corinthians 15, I die daily. It's a daily dying to self. So that self gets moved out of the way and Christ comes in. Think about the power that community hospital would have if each one of us allowed Christ to live out his life in us each day. You know when something frustrating happens, instead of snapping back, getting angry, getting grumpy, getting moody, we demonstrate the love of Christ. What did Jesus do when he was mistreated? He said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And the gospel is so powerful that it can take sinful human beings such as us and help us to live that way towards those who mistreat us. True. That is the power of the gospel. That is what God is calling us to be. And that is why in reviewing Harold, April 1st, 1890 l y also says, several have written to me, inquiring is justification. The Third Angel's message, and I have responded, it is the Third Angel's message in Verity. Why is that? Because when you get to Revelation 1412, revelation 1412 says, here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Remember the faith of Jesus. It's right here. When you're justified, you're justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. When you're crucified, Christ lives in you. You live by the faith of Jesus Christ. And that is the Third angel's message. That is the message that we, as God's people need today. It's a message that is a message of complete surrender to God, of Christ, living in us, and of us demonstrating his righteousness, the righteousness of God to the world. When that happens, the gospel will be revealed as a witness to the world and then the end will come, and that is what Jesus is looking for in his people today. So we are gonna continue our study through the Roman, through the book of Romans throughout the rest of the week. We're gonna cover Romans three and four tomorrow, the Faith of Abraham. Then we're gonna get into Romans six, seven, and eight at the end of the week. So thank you very much. I guess we're gonna have a closing him and then we'll have closing prayer.

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The Power of the Gospel

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