Well, it's an exciting week as we look toward Christmas Day, what we call Christmas Day, and just a focused time of celebrating the incarnation of Christ, something we rejoice in every day, of course, but it's great to have a time like this, and we look forward to spending time with family, our kids coming in, and we always cherish those times, and we love being together, so anytime we had that opportunity. It's a special benediction from the Lord. Christmas is a wonderful time for all those reasons. We think of how Scripture points us to the incarnation of Christ and even how the Old Testament prophesied that He would come. That's one aspect of God's Word that the Christmas season especially prompts us to remember. The many Old Testament prophecies about Jesus, the Messiah, coming into the world, the prophecies that were fulfilled when He came into the world. We think of the prophecy of the virgin birth or the prophecy that he would be born in the town of Bethlehem, all fulfilled. But another major prophecy was that the Messiah, the one whose coming the nation of Israel was looking forward to for centuries and waiting for for centuries, that one would be a king. And even more specifically, it was prophesied that he would be a descendant of David. It is that prophecy that is briefly mentioned actually in our passage today in Romans chapter 1. It has worked out in God's providence that where we are in our study of the first chapter actually fits the theme of Christmas week. We have begun this epistle a couple of weeks ago, and in our studies so far, we have taken only a look at verse one, an in-depth look at verse one, and in that opening verse, we found the author, the apostle Paul, clarifying to the church in Rome, the believers in Rome who made up the church in Rome, which probably really consisted of a handful, five or more house churches, he wrote to them, Never having been there before, he didn't plant the church. He only knew a handful of them. He wrote to them to clarify, first of all, his identity. In other words, he told the believers in Rome who he was. And he even mentions the authority that he had for writing them in the first place. He also mentioned the mission that the Lord had sent him on, all of that in verse 1. I'll read that again for us. Verse 1 reads, Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. Now, we summarized the apostle's identity last week this way, that he was a purchased slave. He wanted them to know that he was a called apostle, and as well, he was a separated preacher, separated out for the gospel. The fact that this was Paul's identity is really amazing when you think about it. It's an amazing act in the providence of God because Paul was one of Christ's greatest enemies. He hated Christ. He hated Christians and Christianity, and he persecuted them, and Christ chose that man. to be one of his greatest apostles. Well, today we find in verses two and three, some more commentary really just on that last part of verse one. Here's what the next two verses say. Verse two, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his son who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh. Notice that little connecting term, which, that's at the beginning of verse 2. That's the term that connects now what I just read, what follows. It connects it with that phrase at the end of verse 1, where it says the gospel of God. He preached the gospel of God. So this connecting term is confirming that what he says now is just more commentary about that message, about the gospel. Now, in particular, we're going to note today that Paul is adding two observations about this gospel that God separated him out to preach. Here's observation number one. It is an old message, an old message, an ancient message, we could say. because the gospel has its roots deep in the Old Testament. He says in verse 2 again, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Now, this was an important point to make at the beginning of this letter because, again, these people hardly knew Paul. Paul said he preached the gospel. Sometimes he called it his gospel, and he only meant that it was a gospel he believed and he preached. He didn't create it. But they could have suspected that, well, I don't know if it's orthodox. Maybe this gospel contradicts the teaching of our scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. So Paul wanted to make this emphatic point right at the beginning that the gospel he preached did not contradict the Old Testament in any way. In fact, it was the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Now he says, it was promised. And that term promise says something more significant than if Paul had said it was prophesied, though it was. The term promised means not only that it was prophesied, foretold, but it's a word that means that God was committed to make good on what he'd said he would do. So yes, Christ's coming into the world and the salvation that's found only in him, All of that was foretold in the Old Testament in various ways, but this word says it was also guaranteed by God to happen. And look at this, even more profound. It says in verse 2 that this promise happened beforehand. That phrase, promise beforehand, is actually just one word in the Greek, and it's a very rare Greek word. It's Paul's way of saying that the gospel was not some sort of afterthought by God. In other words, it was not God in heaven trying to figure out what to do about the problem of sin. It was not some sort of emergency measure that God hastily threw together on some sort of time schedule to be the remedy for the ruin of humanity that happened because of sin and the fall. Instead, it's something so ancient that it was created by God before the fall, before sin ever entered the world. The gospel message predated the entrance of sin. In fact, you could say the gospel message in the eternal mind of God anticipated human sin and human ruin. Peter says something similar in 1 Peter 1, in writing to believers, he says, we were saved with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ, for He, Christ, was foreknown before the foundation of the world. but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you." So again, when we talk about the gospel, we're talking about a plan that's an eternal plan, something that was in the mind of God before time as we defined it even began. But yes, then in time, it was foretold and then revealed. So he says in verse two, through his prophets, promise through his prophets. prophets like Moses. Commenting on Moses, Acts 3.22 says, the Lord God, this is what Moses said, he said this in the Old Testament, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Moses foretold that. David even prophesied about the resurrection in Christ in some of his writings, Acts 2 verse 31. And we certainly know that Isaiah is a great prophecy in the Old Testament about Christ and his atoning work on the cross. Isaiah 53, 6, the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. That was written hundreds of years before Christ came. Jeremiah wrote this in Jeremiah 23, in his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is his name by which he will be called the Lord, our righteousness. In Ezekiel 36, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. This is a prophecy about the good news, the gospel and salvation. And I will remove the heart of stone, a dead hard heart from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and there meaning a soft heart, a heart that believes. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, prophesying the change that would come about in people's hearts through the preaching of the gospel. And there are other prophets, other writers who use types to somehow speak to both Israel and to the nations of this good news that was coming concerning the Messiah, concerning Christ. In fact, when Paul uses the word prophets here in this verse, his intention is to designate all of the Old Testament as prophetic in nature. Not that every verse was prophetic, but overall the Old Testament was prophetic in nature about Christ. So he adds this a little later in chapter 3 of Romans verse 21, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Now back to verse 2 in our text, Paul adds this phrase to even broaden what he means as prophets then. In other words, he says, in the Holy Scriptures, look there. It's prophesied that He would come. And Holy Scriptures, that meant what we call the Old Testament, the Old Testament Scriptures. That was the Bible Paul had. These were the writings that he would use when he would go into the synagogues to preach the good news. And he says, these are distinguished, these writings, from all other writings because of their holy nature. So for Paul, there was definitely this body of truth that he believed in and that he knew possessed this unique quality and even a unique authority. He had this high view of the Bible as he possessed it in his day. Just as a side note, that certainly is the perspective we are to have today of the Word of God, even more so since it is the completed canon now. Nothing should be more precious to us than studying it and mining out of it the riches that are there because this is Holy Scripture. Again, back to verse two and the point. The Old Testament is full of this expectation of God's great saving act to be accomplished through the one they waited for, the promised Messiah. So the Jews were anticipating that, anticipating a great someone who would come. You get some examples of that in illustrations of it in the first part of the New Testament before the cross, their own Old Testament ground still you could say in the Gospels, before Christ died and was resurrected. The Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and all that. They're living under the Mosaic law still. And so you had a godly man like Simeon in Luke 2, and it says, this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel. Another way to say the Messiah. Anna in Luke 2 as well, she continued to speak of him, the Messiah, to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem, looking for, longing for this one to come. Later on in Luke 23, we know Joseph of Arimathea is the one who donated his tomb for Jesus to be buried in. And it says that he too was like that. He was one waiting for the kingdom of God to come. So what's the difference then in the rest of the New Testament? Well, it's as if the New Testament says, well, you don't have to look anymore. It's come. He's come. God has acted. The mystery is now explained. It's called the gospel, the good news, and this good news is now what is to be proclaimed all over the world to all nations. You see, there is some continuity between the Old Testament and New Testament in various ways. There's some discontinuity, but here's one place where there's continuity. In the Old Testament, the gospel and Christ are promised. The gospel is revealed then in the New Testament. So that's what Paul did when he went into a city. As I said, he would go into the synagogue and he would reason with the Jews there. He would try to convince them that Jesus was this long-awaited Messiah. What did he use? The Old Testament scriptures. We study the book of Thessalonians. You find his ministry in Thessalonica in Acts chapter 17. It tells you what he did in the city. He got to the city of Thessalonica according to his custom in Acts 17. It says he went to them, the Jews, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ, the Messiah, Christ is the New Testament word for Messiah, the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead. It was all there in the Holy Scriptures. did the same thing in Corinth according to Acts 18. He was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. It's not that every verse says something about the Messiah or Christ, but there are prophetic passages woven in throughout the Old Testament. That's why Christ himself, when he was on earth, He did the same thing. He appealed to the Old Testament, even speaking about himself. Luke 24, he said to them, O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. They said other things as well, but they also spoke of him. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter his glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. Not in every single verse, that's not what it means, but throughout the Scriptures, he could use Old Testament prophecies and types to point to himself. They should have known that. Luke 24 goes on in verse 44, all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, the Old Testament. Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. So back to the point. Jesus' appearance on earth, the incarnation, it was no last minute appearance on the scene. The gospel is no novelty. It's old. It's ancient. It goes back to the very mind and will of the eternal God, God in eternity past. And then at God's appointed time, He began to unfold the gospel through the prophets of the Old Testament, and then certainly more fully in the New Testament. That's what we have in the Bible. The unfolding of the gospel, the unfolding of God's plan of redemption. And as we saw at the end of verse one, Last time Paul said, it's my purpose to proclaim that old message. There's one observation, it's an old message. Number two, second observation about the gospel of God that he preached, it's a singular message. It says, here's the essence of it concerning his son. The singular clear focus of the gospel is a person, Jesus, the Son of God. The very one who fulfills all that the Scriptures promised. You see the singular focus summarized in 1 Corinthians 15. You can turn there if you want to look at it. I'm just going to summarize it for you. 1 Corinthians 15, the first several verses are a great one-paragraph sort of look at this is the gospel. Paul outlines this for us. What does he say there in 1 Corinthians 15? He summarizes it this way. It says there in the text, Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures. It says in that passage he was buried. It says he was raised from the dead the third day according to the scriptures. And then Paul explains in that passage that Jesus, the risen Christ, appeared to various people, hundreds of them, witnesses who could verify they saw the resurrected Lord. So again, the gospel just boiled down to its central theme is the singular message about the person and work of Jesus Christ. The gospel is a message about what it means to know Him, what it means to love Him, what it means to trust in Him, what it means to worship Him and follow Him. That's the singular message of the gospel, and that singular message is what Paul began to preach right after his experience on the road to Damascus, going to the city of Damascus to persecute more Christians. And the resurrected Lord appeared to him, crashed into his life, revealed himself to Paul, blinded him even for a while. But as soon as that blindness was lifted, he was baptized, it says in Acts 9 verse 20, immediately he began to proclaim Jesus. The singular focus of the gospel in the synagogue saying, He is the Son of God. And since He's the Son, that means there's community of nature with the Father. This is an expression, Son of God, that even says He's divine. Jesus co-equal, co-existent with God the Father. So to confess Christ as your Lord, to follow Him is to acknowledge then that He is indeed God and you believe that. because the Scripture teaches it. It's sad that I have to belabor all this this morning that it's the singular focus of the gospel. It's sad because there are plenty of preachers preaching almost anything today and calling it the gospel, social reform, rehabilitation, prosperity. It's a Christless Christianity. As one writer has put it, this being espoused today, a message that no longer presents Christ as the Lord God, the one who must be loved and the one who must be obeyed and served. But the bottom line is you take Christ out of the gospel, there is no good news. There's only a message of bad news, the judgment. Well, Paul wants to further describe the Son, the one who's the singular focus of the gospel, and he does it in two important ways. Here's the first description, verse 3. who was born of a descendant of David." Now, this term, translated born, there's a translation that says made, made of a descendant of David. You can translate it that way as well. This term is found elsewhere. It's in Galatians 4.4, when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. But we need to understand it correctly because this is not the normal Greek term for giving birth. In fact, it could be translated became. And when I read John 1 this morning, the last verse of that passage that I read, verse 14, uses this same term and translates it became. John 1, 14. We read it earlier. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It's that term. So this term that's used here doesn't convey the idea of what we normally think of birth in the human realm of someone coming into existence for the first time. If you wrap all nine months up together in one package, this whole idea that someone who did not exist was conceived and then born. It's not this term. This term means to come. from another state of being and another state of existence. The verb implies movement from one state to another state. The verb implies a change of existence. Jesus moved, transitioned from pre-existence in heaven to incarnate life, taking on humanity. This is a contrast then to the rest of us. We're ordinary people because we're born. The eternal Son of God became flesh in human nature. Another biblical confirmation that the Son of God has always been in existence. The eternality of Christ, a truth that's found across the writers of the New Testament. The first part of what I read this morning in our passage, John 1 verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John using that term, Word, to refer to the eternal Son, Christ. And again, in 1 Peter, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world. So Christ didn't come into being in that little town of Bethlehem or even the nine months before when it was conceived in the womb of Mary. He did not come into being. He already existed. but He came then as the man, Jesus of Nazareth, the promised Messiah, assuming a human nature and assuming a human body. And that's an incredible thought, right? The incarnation. We celebrate it, but we can't fathom it. God the Father taking the eternal spirit of the eternal Son, and by the Holy Spirit, another member of the Godhead joining The Son, the eternal Spirit of the Son to humanity in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and out of that bringing the God-man Jesus. We can marvel at it. That's all we can do. But the rest of the descriptive phrase is what I want to center in this morning that's so crucial to understand and believe. He was born a descendant of David, a descendant of David. This is a statement that establishes the Lord's genealogy. We're so interested in that in the last decade or two or three here in our world. People wanting to know their genealogy and paying money to find out whom they're related to with great hope that there's some money back there in the line somewhere, you know, maybe. This is the Lord's genealogy. He came from the line of David. That's a clear statement that the incarnate Son fulfilled the Messianic office. He's the long-awaited one. Now, to grasp the significance of this, we're going to spend a few moments in 2 Samuel chapter 7. This is the passage that presents to us what is called the Davidic covenant. And it's one of the six covenants you can identify in Scripture. Some would say five. I think there's six that can be identified. What is a covenant? Well, we use that when we talk about marriage. It's something more than a contract. A marriage is not a contract. It's something deeper. It's a covenant. These covenants in Scripture are referring to a formal agreement. A covenant is a treaty between two parties and it contains regulations and it contains obligations. There are six that Scripture identifies. These covenants are the means through which God's kingdom purposes unfold through Scripture. Now, five of the six are called unconditional covenants. It means they cannot be nullified. They're non-nullifiable, if that's a term. And that just means once the covenant was ratified, made and ratified, the covenant must be fulfilled. Nothing will stop it. That's why sometimes they're referred to as everlasting. One of the five is conditional, but the five unconditional are the Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant. In other words, the covenants made with Noah, Abraham, there's the priestly covenant, the Davidic covenant that we're looking at this morning, and the new covenant brought in by Christ that we are under. And the one conditional, or you could even say temporary covenant then, was the Mosaic covenant. the Mosaic Law. Granted, some of you know this, that some try to add covenants to this list through theological reasoning, but these are the six only actual covenants clearly identified in Scripture. Back to Romans 1, chapter 1, verse 3, Jesus was a descendant of David, so that points us to the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel. And as I noted, this covenant is one of the unconditional covenants in Scripture, and in it, God promised, even guaranteed, the perpetuity of David's descendants to be on the throne of Israel. Now, here's 2 Samuel 7, just starting at verse 9. I'm not going to read it. 9 through 16, but I'll just summarize what are in those verses. You can see it. For example, in verse 9, it says that David's name is going to be made great. In verse 10, a home is going to be provided for Israel. Verses 10 and 11, Israel is going to be given undisturbed rest from all her enemies. I haven't seen that yet. Verse 11, a house. Here, the word house means dynasty. In other words, there's going to be a line of David that will endure, verse 11. Verse 12, there's a coming son who would establish the kingdom. Verse 13, Solomon, an immediate son, was the one chosen by God to build the temple. David was not allowed to build it. None of David's other sons, Absalom, Adonijah, and so forth, only Solomon would build the temple. And there, the word house is referring to temple, house for my name. Verse 13, Solomon's kingdom will be established forever. It'll keep going. Won't completely go away forever. 14 and 15, God's going to be a father to Solomon. And when Solomon disobeyed, God was not going to treat him the way He did Saul, King Saul, by taking the kingdom away from him. He says, I won't do that with Solomon. In verse 16, look at that one especially. David's dynasty and kingdom will endure forever, and the throne of David will be established forever." In other words, David's descendants, some descendant of David, would have a reign, and this reign was looking past Solomon, and this future aspect of the covenant God made with David, that became the prime focus then of the messianic expectation of the Old Testament. So this was obviously an important covenant. In fact, so many other Old Testament passages touch on it as well. Allow me to read some of these this morning. Isaiah 11, verses 1 to 11. Get the messianic prophecy here about Jesus. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse. That's David's house. The spear of the Lord will rest on him. With righteousness he will judge, and he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious. Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with his hand the remnant of his people who will remain. Jeremiah 23, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord when I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. Jeremiah 33, in those days and at that time, I will cause a righteous branch of David to spring forth and he will execute justice and righteousness on the earth. For thus says the Lord, David shall never lack of man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. Ezekiel 37, my servant David will be king over them and they will all have one shepherd, meaning a descendant of David eventually, and they will walk in my ordinances and keep my statues and observe them. They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob, my servant, in which your fathers lived, and they will live on it, they and their sons. And David, my servant, meaning his descendant, will be their prince forever. I think what's amazing to me is Psalm 72, because Solomon was the immediate fulfillment. Solomon, this literal son of David, immediately would be the one who would be the king to follow David and build the temple. But even Solomon in Psalm 72, verse 11, prays for the future Davidic king, and let all kings bow down before him, Solomon says, and all nations serve him. This was the clear Jewish expectation that this future ruler would come from David's line. This was the long-awaited Messiah. So when the New Testament era arrived, Jesus was manifested to be that one, this ruler, the ultimate son of David. So let's just look at the consistent New Testament testimony. The New Testament begins this way in Matthew 1, verse 1, the record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of David. Mark 10, 48, this man named Bartimaeus on the road, he heard Jesus, the Nazarene was coming, and when he heard that that's who it was, he began to crowd and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. He knew the prophecy. Luke 1, 32, he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David." John 7, has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David? Acts picks it up, Acts 13, from the descendants of this man, David, according to promise God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus. Paul writes to Timothy, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, descendant of David. And at the end of the New Testament, Revelation 22, Christ himself says, I am the root and the descendant of David. So plug that in with Matthew 1 verse 1, how the New Testament begins the genealogy of Jesus. He's the son of David. At the end of the New Testament, Jesus himself says, I'm the son of David. It begins and ends with that thought. And just one more thing. Some of the promises in the Davidic covenant were fulfilled in Jesus' first coming. Other promises await fulfillment at his future second coming. What happened to his first coming about the kingdom? Well, certainly those who come to Christ and trust in Christ and believe in him are positionally transferred into that kingdom. They're members of that kingdom already, but not yet completely in its full fulfillment. That's why Colossians 1.13 says, he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, even now. And now, because of his first coming, it's the message we proclaim to the Gentiles in the nations. But Jesus's ultimate assumption of the throne of David and his ultimate kingdom reign, they await his second coming in glory. Matthew 25, when the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Matthew 19, at that time the earth is going to be renewed and the apostles will rule over a united and restored nation of Israel. Paul is going to talk more about that in Romans 19 and 11. But go back to our text, that's one way he's described as a descendant of David, and there's a second description. about this one who is the focus of the gospel. He came according to the flesh," verse 3 says. Now, flesh is a frequent term in Paul's writings, and he uses it different ways. The one way he never uses it is to talk about what we think of when we hear the word flesh, and that's our skin, the largest organ of our body. I'll give you some medical education here this morning. The largest organ, the skin, the flesh. He never uses it that way. On occasion he'll use it to refer to the human body as a whole, but more often he uses it to refer to the person just generally. Like in Romans 3.20 about justification by the works of the law. No flesh, no person can be saved or justified before God. Not by works. And theologically, we know that sometimes he uses it in a negative way, the term flesh, to refer to our fallen sinful human nature, our fallen humanness, that's in opposition to God and to the Word, that loves sin. Those who are lost are called in the flesh in Romans 8. In Romans 13, we're told to make sure we're not making provision for this lost humanness, because you make provision for the flesh, it only knows one thing to do, and that's to be fleshly. In Galatians 5, we find listed the deeds of the flesh. The question is, how does Paul use it in our text, Romans 1? Well, here, it's used to refer essentially to just human existence. Jesus came and existed as a human and the Word is emphasizing the weakness that goes along with that and the frailty that goes along with human existence. When Jesus lived on this earth, when Messiah took on a human nature and a human body, Jesus of Nazareth was subject to the things we're subject to. Weakness, tiredness, thirst, hunger, The spiritual distress that comes from temptation like the testing in the wilderness and the testing that he experienced the night before his crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane. At the end of his life, he experienced normal human death. He came, took on human flesh. So this phrase in our verse, according to the flesh in verse 3 just denotes him being to be human in addition to being God. And so that's what we find referenced in the New Testament about Jesus many times. I read it this morning again, John 1 verse 14, the Word became flesh, took on humanity. Verse Timothy 3, revealed in the flesh, Peter says he was put to death in the flesh, in a human body. So wrap all that up. The focus of the gospel is one. singular message. It's a person, Jesus Christ. He is the one who is the promised descendant of David, the Messiah, the promised to save, who even when he was on earth brought people to himself and And in that sense, they were part of his kingdom if they believed in him as we are, but there's coming a day when he will reign on the throne, literally, still to come. He's the descendant of David, but he came in humility. He came in weakness. He took on a human body and human nature. That's whom Paul preached. So let me just give you a couple of closing important implications. One is this, this message the gospel cannot be improved on. I mean, it's an ancient message. It's an eternal message. So we don't seek to freshen it up just to use a contemporary sort of expression. We do that with other things, even in the church. We might determine that a particular ministry has run its course and it's time to maybe end that and do something new. Our approach to certain activities, we might freshen them up, but not the truth. We don't alter it. We don't try to take liberties to it. We're not allowed to do that. We can't make it into something that we would prefer it to be. This connects with really what I said in our philosophy of ministry series that I completed before Romans. I said that there are some negotiable things in the ministry. Some things we can change or do differently, but the main crux of that series was there are some non-negotiable elements in ministry, things we do not change ever. And this fits with that. This is a big one, the gospel. We do not seek to make the gospel more up-to-date for the world we're living in. We're not looking for ways to make it relevant to the community around us. We're just called to believe it. We're called to live our lives in light of it and we're called to just announce it, proclaim it to people just the way it is because it's God's news to sinful man. As a side note, I couldn't help but think about this as I wrote all this out, my thoughts this week. I'm so grateful that we are a part of the Expositor Seminary. Here on our campus, a seminary, Because that seminary, if I just want to summarize what it does, it provides an old-fashioned theological education. That's what it does, old-fashioned. Always staying true to the gospel, always seeking to stay true to every other aspect of biblical truth. And that means it's a seminary that teaches its men what it means to stay true to the text. I'm grateful that this seminary does that. It trains men on how to be true to the text. I'm so grateful for Dr. Zimmick, who helped found this seminary, who was one of my own seminary professors years ago. So grateful for him. He helped set the tone for the direction of this seminary, the Expositor Seminary, to become what it is today. He's with the Lord now. That's an expression associated with him, tethered to the text is what we say about him. He was always tethered to the text. So grateful that I learned language from him, Greek and Hebrew. That's what we're training men to do because when we're tethered to the text, our efforts are all about finding out what it says, not making it say what we want to say. And through the years of my ministry being tethered to text, it's caused me to affirm some of the things I was raised to believe, and it's caused me to let go of some of the things to believe what the Bible says. That was all kind of extra. We don't change the gospel. There was the implication. Number two, since it is an old message, there is no other way than to be saved. this eternal message, since it does not change and cannot change, there's just no other message then about how to be right with God, or how to know God, or how to be justified in His sight, which means have a standing before Him, to be forgiven, pronounced forgiven, how to be saved from sin, there's no other message about that. So again, the gospel message is Jesus, the King, who descended from David, came from heaven into this world for this reason, to live a perfect life and to die on the cross in the place of sinners like us. To be raised from the dead and ascend back to heaven on behalf of sinners, so that by trusting in Him, sinners could be saved. I can just quote Jesus Himself. He said this about His coming into the world the first time, Luke 19, the Son of Man. That's a title for Him that He loved to use about Himself, His favorite title about Himself that points to His divinity. An Old Testament title. He says, I've come to seek and to save that which was lost, lost sinners. John 10.10, I came that they may have life. They're spiritually dead. The spiritually dead ones can have spiritual life and have it abundantly forever. If you're here this morning and you're a follower of Jesus, rejoice over these things. But if you are here and you're convicted in your heart by the truth that you are a sinner, and we're all born that way, If you are being convicted that you are a sinner and if you want to be saved, then come to Jesus. The singular focus of the good news. That's what he said. He said, come to me. Come to Jesus. And that means come no longer trusting in yourself and no longer trusting in religion or in doing good deeds or the fact that you might be better than someone else if you and that other person is put on a scale before God. God doesn't do that. Stop all that and come trusting in who He is and what He did. Come to Him asking Him to forgive you of your sin and to save you. And every person who comes sincerely that way, He saves every single one. Let's pray. Father, thank You for the good news. Thank You for this text that drives us once again to look upon Jesus. May you encourage our hearts if we are his followers, and may you convict hearts if they need to come to him to be saved. Give them faith to believe. In his name we pray, amen.