I've known Bill and Maggie Roller for, my wife and I have known them for some time and their hospitality towards us speaks mightily towards this church. And so I thank them, my wife and I thank them from the bottom of our hearts and we thank God for them and their ministry to us. Well, it is a joy to be here with you this morning. A privilege to be here and to share the word together. When Brother Bill Askell asked me to preach, I was first a little apprehensive, but I asked him, you know, what do you want me to preach on? And he said, the gospel. He said, we love the gospel. And as I just mentioned, through Bill and Maggie Roller, and then through worshiping with you a little bit in the past, and through the few ministry opportunities that I've had to do here with you, I have seen that firsthand, that you do have a love for the gospel. And it brings joy to my heart. And it is a privilege to be able to stand here and share this with you, because we are brothers and sisters in the faith. That brings us to our text this morning. In fact, we did read it in the reading of the text this morning, which I really appreciated. But if you would turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter one. And while you're turning there, I'll just mention, you know, a Christian is marked by his love for Christ and his gospel. And that is why, again, I am thrilled at the opportunity to speak to you today about the gospel. And I pray that this time is both pleasing and glorifying to God, and it is both a joy and a blessing to all of us. I'm going to go ahead and read again. We did read it, but I want to read it again because it'll build a little bit of context. There is so much here, and I'm really not going to get into an expositive scripture here. We are going to take a journey through some text, but our foundational text is right here. We're going to speak this morning and hear about the power of God. And I really hope that this is a time where you can recognize what really has taken place in my life, and I know in Bill and Maggie Roller's life, and in many of your lives, the power of God. And I want to speak to that this morning. What I'm going to do is I'm going to read Romans chapter 1, and I'm going to read verses 1 through 23, I believe it is. Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, Set apart for the gospel of God, 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, who was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for his namesake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. To all who are beloved of God in Rome, call the saints grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because of your faith, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of his son, is my witnesses as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making requests, if perhaps now at last by the will of God may I succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you that you may be established. That is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine. I do not want to. I do not want you to be unaware, brethren. that often I have planned to come to you and have been prevented so far so that I may obtain some fruit among you also even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians both to the wise and to the foolish. So for my part I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is 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. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them. For God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened, professing to be wise. They became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four footed animals and crawling creatures. I read that whole section. because it really, I mean, it ties, Romans is incredible. And if I even start going down the path, I'm going to get off track. So what I want to do is I want to talk to you about the power of God. And this text is going to be our home base. What I'm going to do first, I'm going to tell you a story. And I think the story is going to kind of illustrate one of the points that I want to make today. In 1989, a financial analyst from Philadelphia visited a local flea market. You may have heard the story. At the flea market, he came across a painting that caught his eye, not because there was anything special about the painting. In fact, it was just a simple painting of a country scene, and it was torn. He noticed the painting because he liked the frame. He figured he could use the wood frame for some other purpose, so he took the painting to the counter and asked how much. The person told him $4. He figured that the frame was worth the $4 and he purchased the torn painting of a countryside that he didn't particularly like. He took it home and started the process to take off the wood frame. To his dismay, the wood frame that was very old did nothing more than crumble in his hand and frustrated, he realized that he had wasted his $4. The whole thing was ruined. However, before he threw the painting away, he did discover that it was torn and so made an attempt to investigate the painting closer. As he was removing the canvas from the wood backing, he noticed a document of some sort stuck between the two. So he continued carefully to remove the canvas from the wood backing, thus carefully freeing the newly found document. To his amazement, he quickly recognized the document as a copy of the Declaration of Independence. And he thought, well, this might be valuable. So he quickly called a friend of his who was an American history buff and told him what he had found. His friend said, you better get that appraised. That could be worth something. So we took it to an appraiser and the appraiser examined it and it turned out that what this man had found was one of the original prints of the Declaration of Independence. The appraiser informed this man that this thing could be worth up to $1 million. So he took it to an auction, put it up for sale where it proceeded to sell for $2.4 million. And the person who bought this copy of the Declaration of Independence kept it for eight years and then sold it for over $8 million. It turns out there was much more to this painting than what that man at the flea market could have ever imagined. Now why do I start with this story? Well, I don't start with a story to get you to all run out of here and bombard your local flea markets and look for obscure paintings that might have documents hidden in them. Nor do I want you to go home and tear up all your decorations on your walls and your paintings. You're probably not going to find anything like we're talking about here. But I do start with this to draw the illustration that there is much more to the gospel than most Christians even realize. And there is so much more to the gospel that even the strongest, most knowledgeable Christians cannot even begin to fathom. So what I would like to do today is look at the gospel as we look at the power of God, because the power of God is not where the world thinks it is. And unfortunately, it's not where most Christians think it is most professing Christians. Now, I'm not going to be able to dig deep, as I said, into the truths found here in Romans one in one short sermon, but we will pull some truths out of these verses that are very important for the Christian life. We're going to look at three of them. The first truth will be that creation declares or reveals the glory or power of God. The second truth that we're going to look at will be to look at what is the real power of God as revealed by his word. And the third truth that we're going to look at will be how does this apply? How does the power of God that we see in scripture apply to both the Christian and the unbeliever? So we're going to start, as I said, the first truth is that creation declares or reveals the glory of glory or power of God. We just read it, I'll read it again, Romans 1 20. Paul says, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. And of course, a familiar passage that you probably have memorized Psalm 19, one, the heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands. Scripture declares over and over that creation declares and reveals the power of God, the glory of God and even the righteousness of God. So what I want to do is I want to take a brief look at creation itself, things that happen in creation to kind of get a feel for how powerful God is. On May 22nd, 2011, a powerful EF5 tornado struck our neighbors to the northeast. On that night, Joplin, Missouri experienced a mile-wide tornado that produced massive damage with wind speeds topping out at 250 miles an hour. There's not much on Earth that can top the power that was seen and felt in this tornado. Of course, our planet also sees the power in flooding that changes landscapes, in volcanoes, in earthquakes and tsunamis. And of course, God's power is not just seen in things that cause massive damage, but is also seen in the beauty of his animals, from the grace and fluid stride of a running horse to the effortless yet powerful motions of a dolphin cutting through the water. God's power and majesty are on display for all of us to see right here on our own planet. But as we gaze to the heavens and consider God's creation elsewhere, we discover very quickly that the power seen here on our own planet is really insignificant compared to the rest of creation. The planet Jupiter, famous for its size and its storms. Take that into consideration. You know, an F5 tornado on planet Earth is somewhat a rare occurrence. There's a lot of tornadoes, we know that here in Oklahoma, but an F5 is somewhat rare. And even when they do occur, they occur for what, just a matter of minutes, and then they're gone. Yet on Jupiter, There are storms you guys know the you know the red is the Red Giants called whatever it is and then there's also other storms that have been in existence for hundreds maybe even thousands of years. They're perpetual storms they produce perpetual winds of over 400 maybe even 500 miles an hour. And these storms themselves are bigger than the very planet that we live on. It makes the storms that we endure here seem quite insignificant. Yet it is impossible to talk about the power seen in creation without immediately thinking of the most powerful source in our solar system, the sun. Our sun has a diameter of almost 1.4 million kilometers, which makes it almost 109 times bigger than Earth. There are so many amazing facts about the sun that should cause the average observer to be amazed. One that I particularly find incredible is that the temperature at the core of the sun reaches 27 million degrees. And we had a hot summer last summer, but I don't think we approached 27 million degrees. I heard someone say, I don't know if this is true, but it's a really interesting illustration. I heard someone say that if you could take the tip of this pen, just the ball at the end of the pen there, right up there, if you could take that and heat that somehow to 27 million degrees, everything within a 50 or even a hundred mile radius of the tip of this little, of this, just a very small tip of this pen would immediately be incinerated. That's how powerful a 27 million degrees is, and that's at the core of our sun, the sun that warms us, the sun that God has given to us to give us light and energy and warmth. Yet, when we think of our sun, it's just an average star in our galaxy. And when you think of the fact that there are stars out there that make our sun look like a speck of dust. And of course the sun makes us look like a speck of dust. There are stars out there that are so powerful you cannot even begin to imagine. You can't in your mind begin to imagine that kind of power. And our galaxy is just one of perhaps billions. And the universe I've heard I listen, I don't put a lot of stock in the science and all that stuff because it's always changing. But I've heard that that the universe, I don't know how wide it is. I've heard 20 trillion light years. I've heard five billion light years. There's a lot of variance. But the bottom line is from one side of the other to the universe, however, it's measured out. It is huge. We cannot and I could get into numbers. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to bore you with that. But the point is, creation is big. Creation is powerful. And in comparison to the rest of it, we are tiny and insignificant. Yet the Bible teaches us that God created this all of this ex nihilo out of nothing. He spoke it into existence. There are trillions upon trillions of stars and he knows them all by name. And even though by our standards, creation is huge beyond imagination. Isaiah tells us that God measures the entire universe with his hand. God is big. Isaiah 48, 13 says, Surely my hand founded the earth and my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand together. These verses, in fact, show and demonstrate that God is big beyond comprehension and that he is in control and rules over his creation and that he is incredibly powerful. Yet all of this, as brief as I mentioned, is only a demonstration. Of God's power. You know, the Bible never declares creation or any part of it as the power of God. Creation points us to a big and powerful God and causes us, it should cause us, to ask, how majestic are your ways? It makes us think and ponder what kind of God can produce and rule over all of this. Psalm 8, 3 through 4 captures this beautifully. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you take thought of him? Which leads us to the next truth about the power of God. As I said, even though the Bible does not declare that creation is the power of God, the Bible does, however, tell us what the power of God is. and it is found in a place where the world does not want to look. Think about this. If you look at creation and conclude that God is big and powerful and you study just a little bit that I told you this morning, but you went and studied all the powerful forces that are in creation and you conclude that God is big beyond imagination. He's powerful. And as we read by Paul in Romans, It also declares his righteousness and his glory, his invisible attributes are clearly seen because of creation. And if I or somebody else came up to you and said, now that you understand how big creation is and you understand that God is powerful, he's the creator of it all. Now I'm going to tell you what the power of God is. You might be inclined to think that that person is crazy. Because how could somebody possibly be able to describe what the power of God is after looking and investigating how big his creation is? Or you will sit up and take notice and say, OK, this is going to be good. I mean, all I have to do is look out and say, God is big and powerful. Now you're going to tell me what the power of God is. Let's read Romans 1, 15 through 17. So for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is 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. The key part there is for it is the power of God for salvation. That's amazing. I mean, think about it. Think about how big creation is. And God intentionally wants you to look at creation and conclude that he is big and majestic. But then he turns and says, this is the power of God. And Paul, if you read here in Romans, is making a very big point to bring this out. because he wants the Christians who are going to hear this to understand what it is that rules over their life through the gospel. How powerful must his gospel be if it warrants such a title outside of heaven? It is only the gospel where the power of God resides. It is the ultimate truth in our existence, and it trumps all other so-called powers. The story of a Jewish man born of a virgin, ordinary in appearance, born in the most humblest of places, Growing up in an obscure, filthy town, living the life of a poor carpenter, being rejected by men and his own people, dying the death of the vilest of criminals on a Roman cross, and then being resurrected, is being described as the power of God. How can this be? Let's look. You don't have to turn there if you don't want to, but 1 Corinthians 1.18, I'm not going to read it, 1 Corinthians 1.18, it also tells us that the gospel is the power of God. It says that the gospel is the power of God for salvation for those who are being saved, and we're going to get into that as we do the application. What I want to get to is that it also says that it is foolishness. To those who are perishing. Like the story of the worthless painting on the on the surface, the gospel message seems worthless to those who are perishing. There's no value in it. if they would only recognize the infinite value that is inside the gospel. Unfortunately, as Paul tells us in our text this morning, people intentionally suppress the truth and decide to actually worship the creation and the things found in creation rather than the living God who created them. That's what he says in Romans 18 through 23. I'll read it again. It says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them. For God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world is invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. It is only the power of the gospel that can rescue people such as these. People such as us. You see, as you know, the God, you know, the gospel literally means good news. Well, in order for us to understand the gospel is good news. And understand why it is called the power of God, we must understand first that there is bad news. As Paul indicates here in Romans and scripture declares many times, creation reveals the invisible attributes of God, his divine, his divine nature through creation in his word. We know that God is holy and that he is righteous and he is just. We also know from scripture that we are his in all creation, I'll think about this, how big creation is. We are his only image bearers. You have been given created by God, you have been given a task to declare to all of creation what God is like. So I ask you. As human beings as a whole, how are we doing? Would you want people to look at you and say and think this is what God is really like? We are to demonstrate the image of God to creation. Scripture tells us that we have failed miserably in our job to glorify God. Paul gets into that in the next three chapters in Romans, the first three chapters. I mean, he goes through some pretty good work to bring the whole world guilty before God. Romans 323 sums it up. You guys know it for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And we see the effects of the fall all around us. Romans eight, you guys know these verses, but I'm going to read a Romans eight. Starting verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God, but the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole earth groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption of sons, the redemption of our body. Why is the gospel so powerful? I'll give you another reason here in a second, but one of the reasons why it has to be so powerful is because sin does unspeakable things to us. It defiles us. Think of the dirtiest place that you can think of in this world. And think to yourself, sin defiles me worse than that. That is why the gospel needs and is so powerful. In order to bring this out, we really need to kind of dig into this a little bit. We know that as God's image bearers, we one day will be judged. Hebrews 9.27 says that it is appointed unto man once to die, and then after this comes judgment. And Jesus tells us in Matthew 12, 36, that man will give an account for every idle word in the day of judgment. And we know that God that God knows all of our thoughts and that he sees all of our deeds done in darkness. And Jesus tells us that the standard that we will be held up to is perfection. And Matthew 6, 48, he says, therefore, you are to be perfect. As your heavenly father is perfect. The standard that we will be judged against is God's perfect standard. Are you perfect? Let's look at what happens when a man is confronted with the holiness of God, turn to Isaiah six. Isaiah chapter six. Isaiah sees a vision. Of God. I love these verses because it is so relevant to how we need to understand when we see God. What should happen to us? Starting verse one in the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne. lofty and exalted with the train of his robe filling the temple. And by the way, John, I think it's chapter 12. I don't have the verse right here. It tells us that what Isaiah, who Isaiah was seeing right here was the pre-incarnate Christ sitting on the throne. Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings, with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet. And with two, he flew and one called out to the other another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory and the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Now, this next verse, as we get into this, I want you understand Isaiah is already a prophet of God. He's already a man of God. And what is his response when he sees the glory of God? Does he say it's about time I get to see something like this? No, he says, woe is me, for I am ruined or I am undone because I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell amongst the people of unclean lips. When he saw the holiness of God and the righteousness of God and, dare I say, the power of God, He was immediately convicted of his own filth and his own wretchedness. That is what we need to come to when we look at ourselves and we look at God. Now, Most of us here, at least right in this lifetime, are not going to have this type of vision. OK, we get into some different theologies. I'm not going to do that. But what I do want to say is this. You can see the holiness of God and the righteousness of God by digging into his word. And when you dig into his word, you, like Isaiah, should look and go, woe is me, I am undone. I can't do this. One of the ways to do this is to look at God's law, to look at the Ten Commandments. Now, understand the Ten Commandments were given to Israel in condition for the covenant that they were under with God. But at the same time, the Ten Commandments are also written on the heart of every man, as Paul tells us. But even more than that, the Ten Commandments, and I'm sure you guys have heard this, The Ten Commandments are not a list of rules that God sat down one day and said, OK, I don't want to do this. We do that with our kids, but God didn't do that with us. With the Ten Commandments, when you look at them, they are the essence and the holiness of who God is. When you dig into them, he is revealing to Israel, this is who I am. This is this is holiness. This is righteousness. So when we look at the commandments, We can look at the fact that we are looking at the righteousness of God. Creation shows us that God is big and powerful and righteous, but his special revelation in his word in the Ten Commandments shows us specifically who he is and that we fall desperately short. The commandments are not a separate entity, they reveal the holiness. Paul also tells us in Galatians that The commandments are a schoolmaster or a tutor to lead us to Christ. And I think it was Martin Luther who said, when you look at the commandments, it should be like looking in a mirror to see yourself for who you are, the light of God coming down on you. What is being revealed? You know, many of the old time preachers that we love to quote Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, Whitfield, Martin Luther and on and on. Before they preach the gospel, before they preach the good news, they opened up God's law because they knew that the Holy Spirit works through the preaching of his word. And they knew that in order for somebody to understand why they needed to be saved, why it is that Christ did what he did, they need to first understand their sinfulness. So he opened up the law. Let's look at just a few. The ninth commandment. So that you should not bear false witness. In essence, you should not lie. How many lies have you told in your life? If you've done that, if you've told lies, that makes you a liar. And scripture says lying lips are an abomination to the Lord and all liars will not or all liars will have their place in a lake of fire. Eighth Commandment says that you shouldn't steal. Have you ever stolen anything? Regardless of value. Something when you were a kid, when I'm witnessing a lot of time, I hear people say, well, when I was a kid, I stole gum. So you're a petty thief, you know, but the point is, if you take something that doesn't belong to you, change from your parents pocket candy from a store or something bigger or downloading music illegally that you're not supposed to working or when you're at work and you're on the clock and you're not working. I've got news for you. You're actually stealing. If you've done those things and you can think of a lot more, that makes you a thief. And the Bible says that no thief will inherit the kingdom of God. The seventh commandment is adultery. We're not going to look at the physical act, but we're going to look at what what Jesus said about it. Jesus magnified this in the Sermon on the Mount. He didn't he didn't abolish God's law. He magnified it to the point where people just go, I, I can't do this. It's impossible. Jesus said, You've heard it said of old, thou should not commit adultery. But he went on and said, If you even look with lust, you've committed adultery in your heart. The Bible says that no adulterer will inherit the kingdom of God. The greatest commandment, love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Everybody's guilty right off the bat. Nobody at one moment in time has ever loved God the way that he deserves to be loved. You are guilty right off the bat. The bottom line is that God's standard is perfect. And you need to ask yourself, how will you do on the day of judgment? Will he find you innocent or will he find you guilty? And like I said, the bottom line is that we're all guilty. And you know that as Christians, we're guilty. What we deserve is hell. Hell is real and hell is just because God is good. He will not let sin go unpunished. We are his image bearers and we have failed miserably. But there's good news. Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, came to this earth at just the right time in history. He was born of a virgin. And he lived the perfect, righteous life that you and I cannot live. He was perfect in thought, word and deed, all these commandments that you're guilty of, I'm guilty of. He kept them perfectly. And even though he was tempted in every way that we are. He did not fail. He loved God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength every moment of his life. And he always did what pleased the father. But Second Corinthians 521 says, even though he knew no sin, he was made to be sin on our behalf so that we might be the righteousness of God. Do you know what that means? When Jesus was on the cross, all the sins, think of that, think of your life and all the things that you've done that you know are displeasing to God. All of your sins were put on Jesus Christ on the cross, he took your sin upon himself, even though he was without sin, he was treated and punished. As if he had committed every single sin of everyone who would believe in Him. We look at creation as being big and powerful. We know that God is big and He's powerful. Now what I want you to do is think about that power. And I want you to think about it in the terms of God's wrath. And think about His wrath and His power being unleashed justly on sinners. But then move beyond that and think that God, this is make this connection, please, is where a lot of Christians are missing it. God unleashed that very power that we see demonstrated in creation, that really is nothing compared to how powerful he really is. He unleashed all of that on his son in wrath. Isaiah 53, we love the verses. I think it's verse five. He was pierced through for our transgression. He was crushed for our sin. But did you know, just a few verses later in verse 10, it says it pleased the Lord to crush him. He crushed his only son. Because there had to be a payment for sin. You know, people walk around, say I'm forgiven, but they don't have any idea why. They just think God's just going to forgive them just because he can't. He's just a good judge will not let a criminal go out of the courtroom. We see that happen all the time. And people get angry when we know somebody is guilty and they leave the courtroom. We get mad. There's lots of recent stories like that. But unfortunately, people don't want to hold God to the same standard for themselves in their own sin. God can't just let you go, he's just. But Jesus took the punishment for you, you see, because God demonstrates his own love towards us and that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. We just sang the song. Amazing love. How can it be? That thou, my God, should die for me, behold the power of God. He was put in a tomb. He died when he was on the cross. He said it is finished, meaning debt paid. He paid the debt that we owe. He was put in the cross or put in the tomb. And again, behold, the power of God, death could not contain him. He took our sin and death to the grave, but it could not contain him. And on the third day, he was resurrected to life. And that is how we know that we have life in Jesus Christ. because he was resurrected. It is when people ask you for evidence of the Christian faith, you just need to refer to the resurrection. He is alive, he is risen and he is our Lord. The power of God. You know, first Corinthians 24 says that Jesus Christ. is the gospel. So what I'm really saying here when I'm referring to the gospel as the power of God, I'm simply saying Jesus is the power of God. He was given to us as a gift and he is the power of God. The last thing we need to look at is how this applies. We've looked at the power of God in creation and I'm running out of time, so We looked at the power of God in creation. And we've looked at it, what the real power of God is, and that is the gospel, that is Jesus Christ. But we need to recognize that there's a response that is required. I'm going to give you two responses, one from an unbeliever, if you're an unbeliever, if you've questioned all this and you don't know what's going on, but you start to recognize, you know what, if I stand before God, I'm going to be in big trouble. I have one application for you. Repent. Turn to God in faith. Repentance means to change your mind about who you are. Don't think of yourself as good anymore. Recognize it. Be poor in spirit, as Jesus tells us to be contrite in heart, broken hearted and turn to God in faith. And he you have his promise. He will save you. And you will be with him in heaven for eternity. Behold, the power of God to rescue a man who is dead in his sins, dead To raise him to life. Do you realize that? I hate to go long. Do you guys realize that when you look at creation, how powerful it is? He created that out of nothing. But the gospel is about redemption. He didn't just throw the whole thing away. He demonstrates his power and his glory to us by cleaning the whole thing up and making it look better than we could have ever imagined. And he did it all through Jesus Christ. Again, behold the power of God. That's amazing. He could have just trashed the whole thing and justly done it. But no, he predetermined a plan to rescue all of us, and he does it through the power of his son. Turn to him in faith as an unbeliever. He's calling you today. Don't harden your heart. If you harden your heart, you don't know. The Bible warns you may not be granted repentance in the future. He's calling you today. Don't ignore it. Turn to him now. You can be saved right now. Turn to him. He is mighty to say he loves you and he died for you. As a believer. We tend to think that the gospel is exactly what I just said towards unbelievers and that once you receive that, once you believe the gospel, you're saved and you kind of move on. That is so entirely not true. When Paul is writing in Romans, he's speaking to believers and he says, I want to preach the gospel to you. Why does Paul want to preach the gospel to believers? Why does Brother Bill Askill ask me to come speak to you and preach the gospel? Do you guys know what the theme of Romans is, if somebody were to ask you, what's the theme of Romans? You'll hear a lot of responses, justification, grace by faith. And those are very true. They're found. But that's not the theme of Romans. Paul tells us very clearly and right there in chapter one, it's verse. I'll start in verse four, it says he's referring to verse four, who was declared the son of God with the power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles. He's preaching the gospel because it brings about the obedience of faith, the gospel Understanding that if you preach the gospel to yourself every morning, I'm sure you guys have heard this. Get up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, child of God, you are righteous today. You are perfect before God. Jesus said you must be perfect. You are perfect in Jesus Christ. That is the power for the Christian life. That is how you can love your family and you can love your husband and you can love your wife and your children and raise them in the Lord. That is how you can do your work for the Lord, not by trying to follow rules and commandments. We can't do that. It's already been proven to us. But Jesus did it all for us and we can walk around free in the gospel. Paul preached the gospel more to believers, at least in the scriptures, Then we see him to unbelievers because it is the power that we need every day. Behold, the power of God. It's the gospel is for godliness, life and godliness. Trust it every single day and you will grow. I'm going to end with with one final thing. It's kind of a story, but it's more it's true. It's true for a lot of believers who have already experienced it. And one day it'll be true for you. Imagine yourself right when you were saved at the foot of the cross. Crying out to God for mercy and Jesus is there. And you know that you have received Christ by faith. And you're clothed and you're forgiven, you're clothed with his righteousness. You're like, this is amazing. And just when you're thinking, oh, what else is there? What's next? Jesus says to you. Come with me, I want to take you somewhere. Where are we going, Lord? And he says, we're going to see the father. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. I don't know if we should do this. I mean, just yesterday I was under his condemnation and his wrath. I don't know if... No, Jesus says, trust me. He has forgiven you because of my work and you are perfect because of my work. So he begins to take you to heaven, take you to the throne room of God. And as you're entering, however you want to picture it, the big, the huge doors. And you're apprehensive. I don't know if I should go in there. The Father's in. I don't know. And Jesus says, no, trust Me. Come in there. Come in. You are His child. He has forgiven you. And you step in there. And immediately you recognize you are in the presence of God. It is the most incredible thing you have ever seen or experienced in your life. And you're thinking that you have to leave. And you're like, Lord, if I could just remember this moment for the rest of my life, I will talk about it to everybody. And Jesus says to you, no, no, this is your home. This is where you will be for all eternity in the presence of God. Again, behold the power of God. You are his children and you will dwell with him as his people forever in heaven because of the gospel. I pray that you trust that every single day. Let me pray. Father, I thank you for this time today. I thank you for the opportunity to declare your word. Lord, I can't do it justice, but I know the Holy Spirit can. I know it's the Holy Spirit that delivers it, and I pray that people here will respond through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, through the encouragement And Lord, I pray that. That we will. Behold and understand the power of the gospel in our lives day after day. We can understand that as we see a pastor and I and I ran. We see the power of the gospel, Lord. And the fact that he will not renounce his faith. We thank you for that. We pray for him. We pray for us that we can declare your glory in your gospel every day. In Jesus' name, Amen.