This morning, if you would turn with me to the book of Romans in the New Testament. I'm going to begin preaching in Romans. Believe it or not, in the whole 20 years that I've been here as your pastor, I have never preached in the book of Romans except one sermon. And that was concerning a New Year's sermon from Romans chapter 14. But I want to begin preaching through the Book of Romans, if the Lord will give me the ability to do so. I think it's a good place to go following our study of the Book of Acts, which I took some years going through the Book of Acts. And we've learned a good deal in the last few chapters of the Book of Acts. about the Apostle Paul and his life and ministry. And now we will go together to look at the gospel, that's what this blessed book of Romans talks about, and the greatness of all that Christ has done for us, and the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a mighty book this is. So let's bow together for prayer so that we might benefit from this time together. Father, we thank you For the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the sending of your Son, which we will look at this morning. And we pray that we would have grace from you on high, that our hearts might be drawn out to you in love for you for all that you have done for us in sending your dear Son. to this fallen world of woe, and to us in particular, so that our hearts have been changed. We pray that you will help us to benefit by this study today and become better witnesses of your truth in the gospel, sharing it with people around us. For we pray these things in your precious name, Lord Jesus. Amen. I want to begin in verse one, and I will read to verse six. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David, according to the flesh, and declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Through him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. So in beginning this series of sermons on the book of Romans, I hope that you'll remember many of the things that we have studied together in going through the book of Acts. In our study of that book we learned much about the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul and how he zealously spread the gospel to all the world around him in his day In this book of Romans he will teach us many truths about the gospel and he will show us the greatness of salvation in Christ. In this message I want to speak to you about the gospel of God's Son. The gospel is made up of truths that we can only learn from the scriptures. Here in these verses there are truths that we need to remember to store up in our mind and pray that we might be able to relate them. to people who have never heard or never understood what the Bible is saying. We need to remember that since Paul wrote this letter by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, if we will pay close attention to what is written here, we will be able to defend and proclaim our faith. And we will be able to explain these truths to those who need to be saved. There are five truths concerning the gospel which are given to us in these verses. First of all, we need to understand that the gospel was something that the Apostle Paul was separated unto, it says in verse one. The Apostle Paul calls himself a bondservant of Jesus Christ here at the beginning of this wonderful letter. He says that he was called to be an apostle. He says that he was separated to the gospel of God. And Paul, in saying that he was a bondservant, is expressing the fact that he personally belonged to Jesus Christ. which means that from the moment that he was converted that he saw Christ spiritually as his Lord and Master. For Christ was the one who had laid hold of him when he was a very sinful man persecuting Christ's church. He didn't lay hold of him to kill him. He laid hold of him to save him. and transform him by his precious and powerful grace into someone who would personally serve him by preaching his gospel. Christ from heaven shone intense, blinding spiritual light and physical light upon Saul that day when he saved him. And Saul heard this voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And Paul was not speechless. Right away he said, who are you, Lord? And the answer that came to him was I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. It's hard for you to kick against the goads." So sometimes people who are coming to Christ or even people who know Christ kick against the goad that Jesus is their Lord. They do not mind taking Christ for salvation, but they do not like the idea of Jesus being their Lord and being his servant, of his requiring of them to do anything in obedience to him. But Paul learned this truth right out of the gate of conversion. In Acts chapter 9 verse 6 it says, So he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And Jesus said to him, Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. So he was blind for three days following this encounter with Christ to show him just how spiritually blind he was. The Lord Jesus had him be physically blind. for three days. This sinful man, Saul, needed to be saved in just this way, so that he would see that Jesus was his Lord. And the reason that God saves any of us is so that we might understand this great truth of the gospel, that is, God is the one who has made you, and he made you for himself. He made you so that you might live your life, not to yourself, which is what you do up until the point that you are saved, but then you begin to live your life for him. Many sins have been committed in the past. Then Jesus said, come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. So in saving you, the Lord Jesus is saying, I am laying hold of you so that you will learn to serve me. and not sin. And when you believe in the gospel, you are being called to a life of holiness by someone who is much greater than yourself. Yes, Christ was crucified because of weakness, it says, but he was raised in power. And the Lord Jesus has all power in heaven and in earth, and he expects you now that he has saved you to confess him as Lord, to look to him and let his Holy Spirit teach you the right way to think and the right way to live. And it's in that way that you will learn to do all of his commandments. Now ask yourself this question, are you Christ's servant? Do you see Christ as your master? The one who has every right to rule over you and to command you things to do. This is how we need to see the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you willing to serve in whatever capacity that God calls you to serve in as a Christian? In the case of Paul, he was called to be an apostle, and it says here he was separated unto the gospel of God. He was separated to preach the gospel of Christ for Christ. And you should understand that the gospel is the good news of God's purpose in Christ, to save you and bring you into the kingdom of heaven. And once you're in this kingdom, then he would have you to be his servant and to testify of his grace. God's purpose was to have Paul become a preacher and a teacher of the Gentiles and kings and to the children of Israel. It was God's purpose for Paul, according to the help of the Spirit given to him, to write 14 books of the Bible. that we hold in our hands this morning, these letters, would become a great and essential part of the New Testament Scriptures. And so Paul was separated to the gospel of God, the good news of Christ, and called to be an apostle, even though he was unworthy of so great a privilege. So we need to understand then, secondly, that this gospel was something that God promised before through his prophets. in the holy scriptures, verses one and two, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scripture. So the gospel is not something new. in terms of when Christ was first promised. It's not a novel doctrine just lately shown up on the scene. Christ was first promised at the beginning of the world when Adam and Eve first fell into sin. The seed of the woman, Genesis 3.15, our Lord Jesus Christ would crush the head of the serpent and he would bruise Christ's heel, the serpent would. But Christ was also promised all through the Old Testament times by God's prophets. And the thing that we should realize from this is that God wanted Israel to listen to Him, first of all, that He would require it of them because they were His special people. that he separated unto himself, but oftentimes you will see they didn't listen to him and didn't listen to the prophets even when they spoke about Christ Jesus. May you and I be different than that. May we value highly the Old Testament scriptures and all of the prophecies concerning Christ in them. Let me give you a few of these things. In Deuteronomy 18, Christ was prophesied by Moses, prophesied of by Moses in terms of his being raised up to be a prophet like Moses. God said Israel should listen to him. And yet when he came, his own did not listen to him, for the most part. He was prophesied of by Job, as the one who knew his Redeemer lived. And that one day he would take his stand upon the earth, and with Job's own eyes he would see him. when he returns someday. He was prophesied of by David in many places in the Psalms. He was prophesied of by Solomon in pictorial and allegorical form in the book of Song of Solomon. He was prophesied of by Isaiah in many places in that book. Isaiah 7 14 where it says the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they would call his name Emmanuel. God with us. In Isaiah 9-6, his name would be called Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. In Isaiah 53, the question is asked, who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's revealed to Israel and to the whole world in New Testament times. In that passage in Isaiah 53 is a man of sorrows and acquainted with the grief of bearing our sins. In that same chapter, he's called God's righteous servant, who shall justify many and bear their iniquities. He is prophesied of by Jeremiah in chapter 31, verses 15 and 16, as a branch of righteousness, who shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth, is called the Lord our righteousness. who would bring in the new covenant of grace. I could go on and on listing prophecies of Christ, but it will be good for you to understand that if you want to prove to people around you that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and the Lord of all, then show them the prophecies of Christ which were made by the prophets of old that were fulfilled in his first coming and in the establishment of the New Testament church. These are great witnesses, I'm saying, to the truth of the gospel. When hundreds and thousands of years before Christ came, they prophesied of him in very particular terms, as William Burkett The commentator says, Behold then a great correspondency, a sweet agreement and harmony between the Old and New Testament, between the prophets and apostles, though great difference in the manner and measure of revelation. For, as one says, the Old Testament is hiding of the New. The New Testament is the opening of the Old. The Old Testament is the New Testament veiled. The New Testament is the Old revealed. So we need to understand then, third, that the Gospel concerns God's Son. Jesus Christ our Lord, it says in verse 3. Now it's a very precious and powerful truth of the gospel that Jesus Christ is God's Son. He is the Father's only begotten Son. He's the one whom from all eternity was in the bosom of the Father. He is the one who is one with the Father in substance and essence as God, even as it says in John chapter one, verse one, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning, with God, and in him was life, and the life was the light of men. In him was life, the essential life of deity, and the life was the light of men." So Christ's life is the light of men. That is, verse 9 says, he was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. So there is a sense, is there not, in which the one, the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, is the one also who gives us, all men, whatever light they do have, by nature comes to them because of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the light of men because he is the Son of God the Father and one substance and one essence with him. So what we are seeing here is that the Apostle Paul knew that proclaiming Christ to be God and God's only begotten Son is an essential part of the gospel. Do you see that? You and I need to see that because oftentimes Jesus, when we preach the gospel to them, we're focusing on his humanity. But we really need to have people focus on the fact that Jesus Christ always was with the Father and that the gift of love in the gospel was the Father's sending of the Son, that is the second person of the Divine Trinity, to become flesh. and thus make the way for our redemption and our salvation, many people just don't understand how great and unique the Lord Jesus Christ really is. It's our duty to explain it to them, to show them that Jesus Christ is not merely a man, but that He is God made manifest in the flesh. Two natures in one blessed person. I'm saying it ought to be preached and proclaimed that God the Father sent the Son into the world through His incarnation out of love for and to fallen sinners. And his sending him was and is, I'm saying, the essence of where the gospel began. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting or eternal life. And I'm saying to you that this began in eternity past. when the Father and the Son covenanted together in the covenant of redemption with the Holy Spirit as well, that the Lord Jesus would undertake to do these great things being sent. by the Father. You and I, I'm saying, when we preach the Gospel to people, don't dumb down the Gospel. Don't make it so that people just think of the Lord's humanity as great and perfect as His humanity is, but let them think of Him in terms of His Godhead, in terms of His Son being, the Son, the only begotten Son of the Father being sent. into the world. What a great thing this is for us to be able to tell other people about. I'm saying it's essential in our preaching the gospel that we're able to tell people about the love of God and sending his son. Verse 17 of that chapter as well, in John chapter 3, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. So it was God who planned, it was God who initiated, it was God who took all the actions necessary to save all the men and women and children who will ever be saved. And therefore it's important that those who have the gospel preached to them understand the sovereignty of God. in salvation. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 18 to 20 show us this. You're probably very familiar with these verses but let me read them to you. It says this, now all things are from God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God for he made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So this is God the Father and God the Son who took these actions so that we as sinners might be saved. What wondrous love is this, O my soul! O my soul! What wondrous love is this, O my soul! that caused the Lord of Bliss to come into this world and then bear the dreadful curse for my soul. This wondrous love of the gospel began from all eternity and then forth Let us understand that the gospel concerns God the Son becoming a man. Verse three again, concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. So how essential it was, Christ becoming a man to our salvation. And you see here that he had to be born of the seed of David. a most particular fulfillment concerning our Lord Jesus of what lineage he would be from. In Psalm 89 and verse 3 it is mentioned, I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn to my servant David your seed, meaning the Lord Jesus Christ, I will establish forever and build up your throne to all generations. It says here, so you see this is the fulfillment, of both of the genealogies in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 to both Joseph and Mary. In Luke 2-4 it says Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of David which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary. his betrothed wife, who was with child. And the angel, when he spoke to the shepherds in Luke 2.10, said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all the people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Ah, how good a thing it is when we can see this as a part of the gospel, the good news, that Christ coming into the world was according to God's great and specific plans as to His lineage. God had plans for the exact time, the exact place of Christ's birth, and the parents to whom He would be born. Let me ask in your witness to people around you, do you think about speaking of these things of prophecy and of fulfillment? For once again they show how great the evidence is of God being a God of great compassion. great purpose, great grace, in that these things should come to pass in just the way that they did. Christ coming into the world as a little babe is a real part of the gospel. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And then fifth, Let us understand that the gospel includes preaching that Christ is risen from the dead with power, verse 4, and he was declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So these words show us that Jesus Christ is both God and man in one blessed personal. When he died and he rose again from the dead on the third day, he was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness." What does this mean exactly? Well, we can begin by saying that he rose from the dead just as he personally said that he would. John chapter 2 and verse 19 it says that he said to those who were asking a sign from him why he had driven the money changers out of the temple. He said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. And in this saying he was speaking of the raising of his, the temple, that is, of his own body. He was going to raise it up. Therefore when he had risen from the dead his disciples remembered that he had said this to them and it says they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. This raising of himself from the dead proves that Jesus Christ is God. And when I say this I want to add further that you should know that in his resurrection all of the three persons of the divine trinity were active in the raising of the body of the Lord Jesus from the dead according to the spirit of holiness could be understood as he himself by his spirit of holiness raising himself from the dead for there was in Jesus a perfect holiness of his spirit which characterized him at every point in his earthly ministry These words, according to the Spirit of Holiness, can also most certainly refer to the Holy Spirit's having raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. For the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Holiness and is called the Spirit of Jesus. in Acts 16 verse 7, but we also read in Romans chapter 8 verse 11, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. And regarding the Father raising the Lord Jesus, we find these words in Galatians 1.1, Paul says, Paul an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. So you can see from all these verses that all three persons of the Divine Trinity were involved in raising the body of the Lord Jesus from the dead. But in Jesus' resurrection, it says here in our text, He was declared to be the Son of God with power. That is, His was the power of an indestructible life. as it says in the book of Hebrews chapter 7 verse 16. He was raised from the dead and he was declared to be the son of God with power in order to verify that in every way he had accomplished the mission of redemption that he had been sent on. The father was pleased with his obedience The Father was pleased with the sacrifice of himself on our behalf. The Father and the Son could now send the Spirit, which they would on the day of Pentecost, to the church. The New Testament church should be founded on the day of Pentecost. And in and with this great gift of the Spirit would come power, not only for the apostles to preach the gospel and to see tangible results of conversions, come from their preaching, but we ourselves need to know and understand that the same power which raised Jesus from the dead is the same power at work in the salvation of any person who believes in the gospel, and it's the same power by which you and I preach the gospel to them today. And therefore, we should continually hope and pray that we might see Christ's great power demonstrated in the salvation of people who we ourselves preach his gospel to. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this passage which is so full of truth about the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we take all of these truths into our minds and bring them forth in our speech and when we preach the gospel and share the gospel with people around us. We pray that when we do so that they would understand that it is your resurrection power that's at work in our life and has raised us from our death spiritually in trespasses and sins so that we're made alive with you, Lord Jesus. We pray that people would see you in us in coming days as we share with them the truth about you and your gospel. We pray it in your dear name. Amen.