July 20, 2025 - The Power of the Gospel - Pastor Paul Reich

[00:00:01] Speaker A: I have the privilege this morning of introducing our guest speaker. And I know to many of you he doesn't need much of an introduction. Paul Reich, he is in. Has been a pastor and he has been a professor. And right now he speaks in various churches and camps and conferences across Canada and the northern United States. And he does that through a ministry that he started called Plumb Line. And he was serving as a president of Clearwater Bible College and felt God moving him to develop Plumb Line Ministries, of which he just travels around different parts of northern states and Canada ministering in these different types of ways to encourage the body of Christ and to help them to be established in their faith. And Paul's got good word for us to hear this morning. And, you know, like, we have teachings in the fall and Paul has taught. I think he taught last winter. Right. Did you? Last couple years. And I know that he wants to teach. He's been mentioned it a couple times, the gifts of the Spirit. And so I have a feeling that's going to be coming our way. And so as we welcome Paul, let's just give him a hand. [00:01:27] Speaker B: It's great to be with you. This is my home church. We came in 2000 to serve with Pastor Paul. He was first Paul, I was second Paul, and served here for about eight years and then went on out to Clearwater College. But this has been our church ever since. And so when I'm able to, I attend here on Sundays. I'm preaching most Sundays at different churches. I'm booked now through the rest of the summer and camp speaking and so on. I guess I have to get the remote out here. So I'm with Plumb Line Ministries. This is a ministry that I started. The motto is Aligning Lives to God's Word. I really believe that as believers, we need to come into alignment with God's word, both the living word, who Jesus is, to become like him, the written word of what his Word teaches. And so that's what we do. I do this through a variety of ways. I do it through preaching and teaching and training at a variety of places, writing, developing resources and missions. And so some of the resources I've developed, I'm working on some visuals for going through James. Probably have about 40 diagrams I'll have that illustrate some of the key, key concepts there. This one is the stages of sin. Each man, when he is tempted, he is drawn away and enticed by his own lust. That's the enticement stage. Then when lust has conceived, gives birth to sin. When sin becomes full grown, it matures, then it gives birth to death. So kind of going through that phase. This has to do with God's wisdom from above and then also worldly wisdom. And so these are some of the types of things I'm working on. I do seminars on a variety of topics. And just this last year I didn't do it as a seminar, but did it as a course on the armor of God here at Livingstone's church. I just recently got back from Greenland on Wednesday, Tuesday night actually, and also from the US and was gone for about three and a half weeks. We went to this city of Nuuk, that's where we flew in. And then we took a four hour boat ride up to Manitzuk. And that's a beautiful village. I just thought I'd throw in on the way. We did see an iceberg, actually a couple icebergs, which was kind of nice to see. This is one of the churches we were part of. And that's my brother in the front there. He stands out a head taller than everyone. And so, and this at the front here are two of the national leaders for the New Life churches. They are, it's a free evangelical Pentecostal group of churches. They're not a state church, they're the Lutheran churches. A state church, it's kind of state controlled. So they're a free church. And they're the second largest religious group in Greenland. The lady there is Nina. She came to Living Faith Bible College, now Clearwater College, back in 1987 and she's the administrator for the national group of churches. And then the fellow at the podium, his name is Brian Wind. His son is at Clearwater College right now and has been for a number of years. And so this next picture isn't overly good. I think it's because of where I pulled them from. This is Nina's son. He finished a Bachelor of theology at Clearwater and is now there. One of the three rotating preachers in his church as well as working with youth and doing outreach. And so he's active in ministry. When we started the conference off, because we were there for churches and an annual conference, I had eight sessions at the conference. The evenings were evangelistic. The beginning day though there were kids as part of it. And so I. They all came to the front and I used a variety of gospel magic tricks and taught the. The gospel to them. That was fun. Preached at a number of sessions. Those are hard to see. Here's my brother. He's preaching at one of the evangelistic services and here's. That was open to people from the community as well. And the altar response that night was about 20 people that came forward to receive Christ. Now, the next night, we had a broader appeal, and we had about 50, because many, many there are wanting prayer for healing. They've suffered abandonment or abuse in some form because of parents that have been alcoholics or whatever. And so God's doing amazing work there. And what you begin to see is the power of the gospel to save, but also the power of the gospel to transform communities. I'll share a little bit more on Tuesday night when we have time. This is Brian Wind and his wife. This is Bruno's parents. They're part of the national leadership team. And so one of the things they want now is Bible training. And so in August, I'll be doing a trial Bible class with his church as he interprets in that church. And then by October, they want to pull on five or six other churches and he'll translate so that we can. At first, I thought it was just going to be leaders, but they want people to come to the church and project. And so they're wanting to train as many people as they can. And so this is an ongoing opportunity for impact in Greenland, and it's a providential thing of God. I'm so excited about it. This morning. I want to talk about the power of the gospel. The power of the gospel. I saw it in Greenland and in the communities where Christ has come, and in the families where Christ has come, there's transformation. Those families are different than the. Than many of the other families in those communities. And even though I was out of country for about the last month, I knew what was happening here. And I knew that Pastor Darren was coming on to staff, and I knew that Steve Hawkins would be here and that there was going to be an evangelism emphasis. And I thought, you know, that's what the Spirit is saying to Livingstone's church. And so I want to flow in with that. I thought, boy, what message do I preach? But I think that kind of decided it for me. Let's flow with what God is saying. And so I chose this passage out of Romans, chapter one, just two verses. We're going to look at other verses around it. You'll see. But it's for my message today. It's this. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel. For it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to faith as it is written. But the righteous man shall live by faith. Now these two verses by scholars, they're universally recognized as the theme for the entire book. And so these words on here are pregnant with meaning because Paul unpacks so many of these terms throughout the rest of his book. And it becomes, it actually can be quite theological. But I'm trying to this morning I want to. It would take numerous messages to unpack all that, but I want to give a summary of some of the key concepts this morning. And my heart is that we can catch again a passion for the gospel, what it means to us. You know, remember that I think it was a cornflakes commercial. Taste em again for the first time. You know, I think we need to come to the gospel again and say what does it mean for me? And so that's what we want to look at this morning. What does it mean for me? Now when Paul starts his letter off, he jumps right into the gospel. He starts off, he introduces himself and he says called as an apostle set apart for the gospel. And then he gives a background, he unpacks some key elements to the gospel. The gospel was prophesied in the Old Testament. This good news was prophesied. And then he says it's centered around Jesus Christ who is a descendant of David and he's the Son of God. And not only that, he says it's grounded in the death and resurrection of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. So he just starts right in and he gives a background to the gospel. And then he describes his obligation to preach. And so that brings us to verses 14 and 15. And he says this, I am under obligation, I'm in debt. Some translations say I'm under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians. This would be non Greeks. It's not necessarily saying wild peoples, they're non Greco Roman cultured people, they're other Gentiles, but they're non Romans or non Greeks, both to the wise and to the foolish. So for my part I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. So he's under obligation and is obligated obligation. If you look at this before this, it's to bring the gospel. And he says it's an obligation. Now the Greek word here means he's in debt, he owes a debt to bring the gospel. Now part of that's God's call, but part of it what he's been entrusted with. And I love how John Stott describes this. He says there are in fact two possible Ways of getting into debt. The first is to borrow money from someone. The second is to be given money for someone by a third party. For example, if I were to borrow a thousand pounds, he's a British writer, from you, I would be in your debt until I paid it back. Equally, if a friend of yours were to hand me a thousand pounds to give it to you, I would be in your debt until I handed it over. In the former case, I would have got myself into debt by borrowing. In the latter, it is your friend who has put me in your debt by entrusting me with a thousand pounds to you. So it's in this second sense that we are in debt to people with the gospel. Jesus Christ has commissioned us go into all the world and preach the gospel, to make disciples of every nation. So we've been entrusted, not just the Apostle Paul, but we've been entrusted with this Gospel, and he's entrusted us to bring it to the world. It's not something that he's given to me to keep, it's something he's given me to give. And so in that sense, I'm in debt. I'm under obligation to God, to Christ, because I'm under him in commission, but I'm in obligation to those around me to share the Gospel with Him. Now, Paul not only understood his obligation to share the gospel, he expressed his eagerness. But I'm also eager to come to you. And he's going to say why. Now, there are many reasons that Paul is eager. He wants to impart some spiritual gift. He wants to encourage them in their faith. He wants to use Rome as a launching point to go further west because he wants to preach the gospel where it hasn't been preached. He's at the end of his third missionary journey. He's been preaching for 25 years. He's planted churches throughout Greece and throughout Asia. Now he's wanting to go to new territory. And Rome is a wonderful hub for him to do that. And there's other reasons. In this passage, we're going to see why. Now, Paul uses throughout his book, he uses a lot of question and answer. And he's very logical, sequential in his reasoning. In fact, the Book of romans in the 19th century was used in some of the prominent legal schools in the US to teach logic and reasoning and to help them to prepare their reasoned counsel, their debates and their defense. It's not used that way anymore. These schools have all kind of apostatized. But it was used in the US for that. So Paul often includes questions like shall we continue in sin that grace may abound, God forbid. Or he anticipates questions and he answers them. Now, all my kids went through a why stage. How many of your kids went through that? Everything you said, why? Well, because. Well, why? Well, because. Well, why? And then my grandkids have gone through that why? And you get on this treadmill and somewhere you're looking, how do I get the off ramp off this treadmill? Well, Paul does a lot of this. He gives reason after reason after reason, anticipating. And this is what happens in this passage. So as we come. So here's the why questions the kid who's thinking, why? So Paul says this. I'm eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome. Why? The implied question is why? And he answers four. Because. Because. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Well, why are you not ashamed of the gospel, Paul? Why? For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Well, how is that the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes? For in it the righteousness of God is revealed in our mind. We go, what does that mean? How can the power of God be in the righteousness of God being revealed? And that's what we're going to unpack this morning as we look at this. What I want to look at is three things this morning. The first one is gospel boldness. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. We need to be bold about the gospel. The second thing I want to look at is gospel power. For in it, that's in the gospel is the power of God for salvation. And the third thing I want to look at this morning is gospel righteousness. Why? For in it, the gospel. The gospel message is a revelation of the righteousness of God. It's revealed in the righteousness of God. So let's take a look at this. We want to start off with gospel boldness. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Wow. The word gospel means good news. It's good tidings. It comes from the Greek word euangelion. The word the prefix you we use in our words too. It means good. You've heard of a eulogy. Those are good words you speak about someone at a funeral. Utopia is a good place. We use it all the time. Angelos is the word for angel or message or messenger. This is the good message, the good tidings, the good news. We have words in our. Our language like evangel, evangelistic, evangelical, and so on. These are all words that we use now in ancient days. So when we're talking about the good news. We're talking about good news. We carry good news. The gospel is a good message. In ancient days, when they brought the message, they didn't have Facebook, they didn't have YouTube, they didn't have social media, they didn't have apps, they didn't have newspapers and magazines and radio and tv. We have all kinds of ways to get our news. But in the ancient world, they didn't have any of that. So how did they get their news? They got their news by sending out messengers, heralds that would bring the news. Kings and wealthy men often hired heralds to spread the news about their new laws or major events or other important information. And maybe a king or a general, after winning a battle, he would send a messenger to go and announce the victory. And so they used messengers. And Paul is saying that he's a bearer of good news. The gospel is good news and he is a bearer of it. So are we. We're heralds of the good news. It's good news. It's not good advice. This is the good news of victory of the God's in breaking kingdom of salvation. It's not just good advice. Other religions give good advice, do this and don't do that. And on and on they try to offer advice about how to live. But in contrast, the gospel is an announcement not of what we're to do, but of what God has done for us. Now, there are things we do in response to that, but it's the good news of God's salvation, God's victory, what God has done for us, not what we are to do to somehow achieve our salvation. And so I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. The word ashamed here means to feel a sense of humiliation, embarrassment or shame or disgrace. You know, when we're ashamed, we want to hide, we want to pull back, we feel humiliated, we want to cover our shame. And so shame prevents us from boldly proclaiming. Now, why would anyone be ashamed of the gospel? I can think of a number of reasons. The first one, and this is one I identify with. Christ and the gospel have been misrepresented. You go through periods of church history. You look at some of the Crusades and the Inquisitions, you look at selling of indulgences. Even today we've got really legalistic groups, we've got really liberal groups, we've had scandal on TV and prominent ministries, and those bring scandal and embarrassment. And I'm ashamed. And then I talk to people and some people have been hurt by spiritual leaders or Christians who should know better. And I think in this case the only thing we can do is just apologize. I'm so sorry. They were not like Christ. That's not the message of Christ and we need to acknowledge it. Then try to get past that. I think other reasons people are ashamed and this is because the gospel itself causes offense. You know, the Bible says, you know, the gospel's exclusive message is offensive. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That's exclusive. There's no other name given under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved other than Jesus. There's one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ. The Bible has an exclusive message. Now some want to water that down and say, well, Jesus is just one of the ways because it's offensive. Well, you just think anybody who goes through Jesus is going to be in heaven, don't we? You know, I'm a good person, yada yada. And we have to recognize that. We have to own that, that it's offensive to people. Another reason it's offensive is because of the bad news before it's good news. It's bad news because before people can accept the good news, they have to recognize that they are sinners, that they are in need of salvation. They have to recognize that they stand under the judgment of God. Why do you need to be saved? Why do you need Jesus? Well, my good deeds will help it. No they won't. People have to see, well, I'm a good person. No you're not. You might be good in some ways, but you've fallen short in other ways. You're a pretty selfish person if you haven't put God first in your life. The greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. If that's the greatest commandment, the greatest sin is to not put him there. So you can be all moral you want, but if Christ isn't at the head, you haven't acknowledged the creator of the world, the one who made you. And so there's these reasons for shame. Another reason is that the gospel offends pride and self sufficiency. See, not only are we sinful, we're helpless. We can't fix ourselves. We're lost, we're enemies of God, we're broken. The message of the gospel obliterates any self sufficiency. We can do nothing to make ourselves right with God. Nothing. We're sinners. We've fallen short of God's righteous standard and we can't do anything to save ourselves. This insults people's pride. Tim Keller writes this. The Gospel by telling us that our salvation is free and undeserved, offends moral and religious people who think their decency gives them an advantage over less moral people. Ah, I'm a little better than you. Well, we'll see. It doesn't matter. He said, ultimately the gospel is offensive because the cross stands against all schemes of self salvation. There's nothing we can do. And so we need to recognize that the bad news is offensive. The gospel arouses opposition from sinners who love their sin and don't want to repent and don't want their sin exposed. They love the darkness rather than the light. But the gospel also arouses opposition from the self righteous and the pride proudful person. And that brings us the cross is offensive. Paul understood this. I mean think about it. God uses execution. He uses capital punishment to save the world. The cross was a form of capital punishment. It's like taking a lethal injection or going to the electric chair. The Jews said cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. This was a stumbling block for the Jews. And so this was offensive. And so Paul writes this. He says for the word of the cross is foolishness. To those who are perishing. It's foolishness because they don't understand what happened on the cross. They don't understand why Jesus had to die, why God's wrath was poured on him. It's foolishness. To them he just died a criminal. He rose again. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. This is the power of the gospel. And he goes on to say this. For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, how many of you know? We want to come to know God on our terms and be wise. God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. How are people saved through the foolishness of this message, through the gospel. But we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling block and to gentiles foolishness. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. That's the power of the gospel. Those things we can't be ashamed of. Now another reason people is personal fear. People just are afraid. And a lot of that's maybe fear of ridicule or rejection or hostility, embarrassment. And we have to grapple with that. And what does that mean and what's right in each situation and for others, it's fear of inadequacy. I'm not prepared to do it. Well, you can get training here. And I was recommending these two books that I think are powerful books. We used to have a course based on the first one, Organic Outreach, and it gives principles for how you can cultivate friendships and relationships and at the right time, share your faith, share the gospel, and eventually reap a harvest. There's also a book for programs for the church for that. How about you? You know, are you. How's your shame level with the God? How's your boldness? You know, it's easy for us to criticize Peter. He denied Jesus three times. How many times have we been silenced because of our shame? You know, Jesus said this for whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes to his glory and the glory of his Father and the holy angels. You know, it's interesting. You get to the book of Hebrews, and the book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters. Wow. God's not ashamed to call us his children, fallen mankind, sinful mankind. He's not ashamed of us. Are we ashamed of him? And so I think that's the question. So that brings us now to the next point. Here we've looked at gospel boldness. Let's take a look at gospel power. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Why? Why am I not ashamed? Why not? For it's the power of God for salvation. This foolish message, this weak message, is the power of God to save people. I love what John Stott writes about this. He says, so this is the power for salvation. He says this. How then did Paul. And how shall we overcome the temptation to be ashamed of the Gospel? He tells us it is by remembering that the very same message which some people despise for its weakness is in fact the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. See, the message that we have can save people. It can rescue them, it can deliver them. Well, what does it save us from? As you go through the Bible, there's a number of things that we're saved from. First of all, sin and the penalty of sin. The power of sin. You shall call his name Jesus. Why? For he shall save his people from their sins. Paul goes through three chapters to show how we're set free, that we've died to sin. We're no longer slaves to sin. We've been set free from the master of sin. The power of Sin. We can live in victory over sin. That's the gospel. We've been set free from the domain of darkness. Colossians tells us he's rescued us from the domain of darkness and he's put us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Son. Wow. Because when we're in sin, we're under Satan, we're in bondage, and he rescues us. Thirdly, he rescues us from physical death. We shall not perish, but have everlasting life. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Now, the Bible does talk about more than one kind of death. It talks about eternal death. In fact, the next one, hell, is the second death. Now, sometimes we get the wrong idea that somehow Satan is the king of hell and he's in charge over it and so on. Satan didn't create hell, wasn't his idea. It was God's idea. God prepared hell. You can read this in Revelation, Read Pastor Paul's book. For the devil and his evil forces, it's when he's going to bring judgment on them. But it also says that anyone whose name is not written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire. Wow. Why? Because God is righteous. God is just. God's righteousness requires him to punish sin. If someone murdered your child, wouldn't you want to see him punished? Someone raped your daughter, wouldn't you think they should be punished for that? I mean, even any sense of righteousness knows that injustice should be punished. God doesn't do it out of human anger. His standard, he knows our hearts and he knows all sorts of things, but he's going to punish it. And this brings us to the wrath of God. One form of God's wrath is hell, but he pours it out in other ways as well. In fact, the argument of Romans, Paul is talking about how God saves us from his own wrath. This is the power of the gospel. You and I deserve his wrath. But in the message of the cross, he pours his wrath out on Christ in our place and saves us from his wrath. So as you go through, we see in the book of Romans right away after this passage, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. And then it quotes Habakkuk, for the righteous shall live by faith, and then right away, for the wrath of God. I thought you were talking about righteousness, Paul. But for the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. One aspect of God's righteousness is that he has to judge evil. And so this passage goes on and Paul talks about, if we look back at this, the thing that he talks about here, the first thing he talks about is the immoral pagans. And he talks about how they're unprincipled. And he talks about these steps to depravity and immorality and the great sin of the society. And he says the immoral pagan sin and God's wrath is going to be poured out on them. And we go, yeah, they deserve it. Then we get to chapter two. In chapter two, he says, but you know what God's wrath that you know, you judgmental moralists who are judging them, God's wrath is on you too. So here's the thing we can say, yeah, preach it, Paul, they deserve your wrath. And Paul says this. Therefore you have no excuse. Every one of you who passes judgment for in which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. Now, Paul's not saying you're immoral like they are. What he's saying, just like they suppress the truth and unrighteousness, just like they don't live up to the standard and they've rejected God, you too are suppressing the truth. There are ways you could pass judgment on their actions all you want. But what has God required of you? Are there things in your life where your conscience accuses you and justifies and doesn't accuse excuses, which is going to happen on the day of judgment? You have the law written in your heart and you don't live up to your own standard. And he goes on to say this, and we know that the judgment of God for falls upon those who practice such things, it rightly falls on those rightly so. If we fall short, his judgment rightly falls on us. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, you're not acknowledging God. You're living your own life. You know you fall short of your own standard. Your conscience has accused you. At times you do the same thing, that you will escape the judgment of God. And then he goes on. Or do you not take light? Do you not think lightly of the riches of his kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to parents? How many know God bears up with our problems causing to come to repentance? In fact, Romans 9 tells us he bears with vessels of wrath, vessels deserving his punishment, so that some can come to repentance so his kindness is to give opportunity for people to repent. He doesn't want to judge you. He's wanting you to repent. But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. It's his righteous judgment. And then so you think, well, I'm not just a moralist, I'm religious. So then Paul focuses attention in Chapter 2 on the religious Jews, and he says, you sin and you deserve God's wrath too. You have God's law. And he goes through some examples. And yet you have a law to not commit adultery. But hey, have you committed adultery? And he shows how even in their history, God's people have failed his laws. You know, the thing that Jesus does is Jesus takes the tenth commandment, you shall not covet, which is a principle of the heart. And he applies it to all the other commandments. You've heard that it was said, you shall not kill. He says, hey, but what about your heart? You shall not. Well, what about your lust? And so he shows that God's principle of his commandment is more than just, oh, I didn't kill anybody. How angry have you been with your brother? How hateful have you been? And so he says, they've even sinned. So then he comes to chapter three, and he says, all sin and deserve God's wrath. And he summarizes those three chapters with, we have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles are under sin. Everyone has sinned. And he uses scriptural support. As it is written, there's none righteous, not even one. There's none who understand. There's none who seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have all become useless. There's none who does good. There's not even one. And then he lists a whole string of other verses showing they're sick, that they've sinned, from their head to their feet, eyes, and their feet and their hands, they're sinful. And then he summarizes it with this, why? So that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. You know what? There's not one person who's going to stand before God and say, I deserve heaven. Not one person. Our mouths will be closed. We're all going to see our sin. And then he says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. See, that's all of us. God's standard. How do you measure up? We all fall short of his Glory. You know, if you're a baseball fan, maybe you think of it this way. Nobody bats a thousand, you know, so here we've got the immoral pagan, and he doesn't do as well as the moralist person who doesn't do as well as the religious person. But they all don't bat a thousand. All of us have sinned. And so here's the thing. If you were to depend on your works to save yourself, let's say you fell off the precipice of a giant cliff and you're hanging by one chain, how many links on that chain would it take to break before you fall to your doom? One. It only takes one sin to make you a sinner. Now, I haven't met anyone who's just committed one. You know, that's why James can say, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point, he's guilty of breaking it all. If God's standard was to swim from Vancouver to Hawaii, and it was about 2,700 miles, and you could make it a thousand miles, hats off to you. Maybe you make it 1500 miles or 2000 miles, maybe you make it within 10 miles of Hawaii. But if you drowned, you still drown, you still fall short. And all of us are guilty and we deserve God's wrath. And so here's the cell. Here's, here's the thing is, what is God's wrath? What is God's wrath? It's not that he's this angry person who just blows off steam. Here's a compiled definition that I've pulled quite a few sources together. God's wrath is his just and measured response to ungodliness and unrighteousness. He's righteous. He's holy. He needs to respond. Stemming from his perfect and holy nature that cannot tolerate sin. God's wrath is not an outburst of uncontrolled anger, but a deliberate and righteous response to sin and injustice. It's not arbitrary or capricious. It's not just going to happen at a whim, but it's tied to his character and his standards of righteousness. His wrath is not without anger or passion. I mean, aren't you angry if someone would rape your daughter? Isn't he angry over his children who've been hurt and abused, killed and murdered? But his anger is controlled by the higher qualities of his nature and his unsearchable wisdom. Powerful quote. Well, quote. Compilation of quotes. And so the Bible says, not only are we saved from the kingdom of darkness and from sin, we're saved from God's wrath. In fact having been justified by faith. Paul says in Romans 5, we have peace with God. We were enemies of God, now we've been reconciled to God. And so he says in Romans 8, 5, 8, 10. But God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us much more then see, while we were sinners, while we were enemies. That's what verse 10 goes on to say. I didn't include it. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God. Through him we've been made justified means made righteous by his blood. And that saves us from God's wrath. We're going to look at that in a moment. A little bit more. We also see this in Romans, chapter 8. Therefore there's now, I always think of it in King James there the. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are. Condemnation here isn't self condemnation. He's talking about the judgment of God, the condemnation of God for your sin. In Christ there's no condemnation. And then 1 Thessalonians, and we're waiting for the Son of God from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. Now there's expressions of that you go through revelation. God pours out his bowls of wrath in different ways. But we're free. We're rescued from the wrath of God. This is part of the salvation message. I think we have to understand this when we're sharing the gospel. So Paul says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God to salvation to everyone. This salvation to rescue us, to save save us. It's to everyone who believes. First to the Jew and also to the Greek. So it's conditional, it is universal in its offer. It's available to everyone, but it's only effective for those who believe. So if I was to give you. If you were to have a disease that was going to kill you, and I had a cure for that disease, that's great. And I made it. I was rich enough I could offer it to the world and everyone's sick with this disease, that's great. But unless you receive it personally, it does you no good. So the offer of salvation is there, but you have to believe. You have to put your trust in it. And that's where this whole issue of faith and belief comes. I'm going to check my time here. Oh, I'm moving on too far. Okay, okay, let me Speed up. Some people just have an intellectual faith. Some people. How many know you can't believe except you know? How can they believe except they know? How can they know except someone preach? So faith has a knowledge element to it. Then you have to agree with that. But if you only have knowledge and agreement, that's not saving faith. The demons have that. They believe the Shema, the Lord our God is one. They have good theology. They believe it so much that they tremble. They know God is so real, but they're not saved. Because biblical faith for saving means you put your trust and commit your allegiance. So I didn't believe that piano bench would hold me all I want until I sit on it. I saw it hold Andrea until I sit on it. Until I put my trust in does me no good. And some of you might have just an intellectual faith. You haven't put your trust in Christ. Let's move on. So let's move to the last point. Gospel righteousness. Why is this important? How is it the power of God for salvation to all who believe. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed. So when we talk about the righteousness of God, the Bible uses this in a number of ways. This phrase, the righteousness of God. First of all, it talks about God's holy character, his moral character. God is righteous. And you'll see verses on this. For all his ways are just. God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is he. For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. In fact, he hates sin. God is righteous in himself. His righteousness forms the standard of righteousness. His laws are based on his person. He's a God of life, so you don't kill. He's a God of faithfulness, so you don't commit adultery. His laws come out of who he is. And then it also talks about him as an impartial judge. He's a just and righteous judge. And there's many times this comes up in the scriptures. God is a righteous judge, for he's coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness. In other words, he's not open to bribes, he's not open to partiality. He doesn't give people due because you're this race or that race. He looks. He can judge the heart. He judges your actions. He's impartial. And then we also have him. This is Paul takes great lengths to defend this. He says that we are Chapter five. That the righteous judgment of God will come on those who don't repent. Chapter 11. For there's no partiality with God. For the God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? He's asking these questions, he's not unrighteous. And then chapter nine, what shall we say then? There's no injustice with God, is there? So he's asking these questions. God is righteous. And when he does righteous judgment, there's no injustice with him. He's going to be perfect in it. And so then it comes to the last point here. God's covenant. One more after this. God's covenant faithfulness to save. See, the Hebrews had a concept that righteousness was relational. And so what you have with this whole thing, if you're in a covenant relationship, if you're in a marriage, you make commitments and obligations. And I'm righteous when I fulfill my obligations to you. If I violate those obligations, I'm unrighteous. God made a covenant with his people. God made a covenant with Abraham. And God is righteous to keep that covenant. In fact, you could have covenants between one nation and another nation. It would be a suzerainty nation. Maybe they conquered that nation, they gave them freedom, but. But they promised to protect that nation, to rescue that nation, to fight for that nation. It's like an alliance. And so covenant relationships had commitments and righteousness was acted out in fulfilling your obligations. And so a lot of times that obligation meant saving. If someone was in trouble, you went to save them. If your spouse was in trouble, you're going to rescue them. Your child's in trouble. And so you have this connection between righteousness and salvation. Regularly in the Bible, the Lord has made known his salvation and has revealed his righteousness in your righteousness. So David could say, in your righteousness, deliver me and rescue me. Why would he not say in your mercy, why? Because he was in covenant relationship with God. And he said, God, would you fulfill your righteous obligation to me? Me to rescue me. And so when God made a commitment to Abraham, he said, through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. He's talking about Christ. He had a plan for the world. He made a covenant with Abraham that he was going to rescue the world that he was going to bless. Well, how's that going to happen? Through Christ. He's fulfilling his covenant faithfulness. So as we come into this, the last one is this is righteousness of God. Is God's imparted righteousness, his imputed righteousness, his righteousness given to me where I have right standing with God. Because Jesus took my sin on himself, I stand guilty before God. Jesus was perfect, spotless. Lamb of God. God says, I love you so much. I'm going to take wrath on myself. I'm going to send my own son, God in the flesh, and he's sinless. And I'm going to put the justice, just wrath that you deserve on him. And I'm going to put his record of righteousness on you. And you're going to stand righteous before me. We're saved from the wrath of God because of the mercy of God on the cross. And so here's where Paul wraps this all up. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become what I'm the righteousness. This is given righteousness. The rest we're talking about God's righteousness. But the righteousness of God is given to me because Jesus became sin for me. I might become the righteousness of God in him for whom I have suffered the loss of all things he says in Philippians and count them but rubbish. That I may gain Christ, why, that I may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. And we see this summarized together in my last passage here. In Romans, these four aspects all come together. Amazing. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God. Now in English we have righteousness and justice and justified, two separate words, so we don't see the connection. In Greek, they're the same family. Dikaiosune, dikaio, they're all the same family of words. We just don't have verb form of righteousness. He righteouses us, he justifies us. So what it says. But the law, it says that now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. It's been revealed. The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel. How? First of all, it was witnessed, was revealed in the law. And the prophets that they prophesied the coming of Christ, even the righteousness of God. What is he talking about? Well, what's the one that's been revealed? Through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there's no distinction, whether you're Jews or Greeks, there's no distinction. It comes through faith in Christ. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified, being made righteous as a gift by his grace through, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. What Christ did paid for my sin. And now I've been made righteous whom God displayed publicly. How did he reveal his grace? How did he reveal his righteousness? He displayed publicly his Son as a propitiation. That word propitiation means satisfaction of just wrath. Jesus satisfied the wrath of God in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness. Why he paid for our sin so that he could have the payment for sin and still be just. Because in the forbearance of God, he had passed over the sins previous. He didn't judge everybody right off. He'd been for bearing with them for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness. At the present time, he delayed so that he could demonstrate his righteousness and put the penalty on Jesus so that he would be just, that he would be righteous. His character could still be righteous and at the same time the justifier. He could legally give us his righteousness, satisfy his justice. He made us righteous. He's the one who makes us righteous and the one who declares of the one who has faith in Christ Jesus. This is the message. So how do we respond to this? How do we respond? I'd like to just close with this quote by Luther and then we'll wrap up. Luther struggled before God and he came to a place where he understood this message. And it was as if he was born again. The Gospel of Romans converted him. In fact, if you go through history, Augustine before him, it was Romans, John Wesley, later it was Wesley, Romans, and here's what he says. I greatly long to understand Paul's epistle to the reader Romans. And nothing stood in my way but that one expression, the justice or the righteousness of God. Because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. That's one of the ways it's used in Scripture. My situation was that although an impeccable monk, I was a devout monk. I lived for God. I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore, I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against Him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul, and I had a great yearning to know what he meant. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that the just shall live by faith, God is righteous, the righteous will live by faith. Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith he gives us his righteousness. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of scripture took on new meaning. And whereas before the justice of God had filled me with hate, now it came to be inexpressibly sweet. In greater love, this passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven. Wow. So let's respond to this. How are you today? Where's your boldness level? As we come to the close and you look at your life, are there times when you need to say, God forgive me, I've not always been confident. I've not always shared when I had opportunity. God, teach me, give me boldness by your Holy Spirit, come. Maybe you're here and you haven't experienced the power of the gospel to save. Maybe you have an intellectual faith, but not a changing faith. Maybe you're here and you really don't realize and appreciate what Christ has done for you. You realize that God took your punishment and placed it on his son. All we could do is bow in worship, say, God, thank you. So let's stand together as we close. Father, today we ask your forgiveness for the times that we have been ashamed, that we've shrunk away, that we've hidden. We haven't been confident. Lord, there's a lot of pressure in our society that will wants to intimidate. It's not just shame, maybe that we struggle, it's fear. Give us courage, Father. We're not ashamed of the gospel, but give us boldness to share that gospel because it's the power of God to salvation. And Father, maybe there's some here this morning or some watching online, they don't know the power of the gospel. And Lord, right now, as we think of our city and the neighbors, your wrath is upon all who don't believe.