Concerned, Committed, Convinced

FEBRUARY 26, 2023 STUDY NOTES ROMANS 1:14-16 BIBLE TEACHER: CLIFTON JONES CONCERNED, COMMITTED, CONVINCED INTRODUCTION We find that Paul makes three personal statements which are identified by “I am” First, I am debtor, verse 14, Paul was CONCERNED about his debt to preach the Gospel Second, I am ready to preach, verse 15, Paul was COMMITTED to preach the Gospel Third, I am not ashamed, verse 16, Paul was CONVINCED of the power of the Gospel As a Christian we too should be concerned, committed, and convinced, concerning the Gospel We say we believe in Hell, are we concerned about those who are lost and going to Hell? Do we really believe that the only way they can be saved from Hell is to receive the Gospel? If so, are we committed to sharing the Gospel with them, are we willing to witness to the lost? Are we convinced that the Gospel is powerful, that the lost can only be saved through the Gospel? Many of us can quote Matthew 28:19-20 by heart, which is known as the “Great Commission” But what has happened to our heart’s desire as followers of Christ to go make followers of Christ? In too many churches today the “Great Commission” is now the “Great Omission” We must hear Paul, agree with Paul, and follow the example of Paul I AM CONCERNED--Rom 1:14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. “I am” is in the present tense, what Paul says is true of his present life, he was continually concerned “I am debtor” means that he was under a strong moral obligation, he had a personal duty, a personal debt His debt is a spiritual debt, Paul knew that he had a spiritual debt to pay to all of society Because he recognized his spiritual debt, he was concerned about all who were lost and without Jesus His spiritual debt was to all that he would meet, he must tell all sinners, whoever they are, about Jesus He was concerned about all who are lost, his concern was without distinction, he was not prejudice “Both to the Greeks,” the sophisticated elite of Paul’s day, considered to be the civilized, cultured people People considered the Greeks to be on a higher level of life than others, and the Greeks agreed The “Greeks” considered themselves to be educated, cultured, and civilized above all other people In Paul’s day, they were considered to be the wise compared to the unwise, the Barbarians The “Greeks” said that all non-Greeks were Barbarians, everyone else was a “Barbarian” They generally called the Romans and Jews Barbarians “Barbarian” referred to anyone who did not speak the Greek language The Greek language was thought to be the language of the gods Greek philosophy was thought to be that of the gods Therefore, that which was of the Greeks was considered to be divine “The Barbarians” were the less civilized class of people, the uncultured In the mind of the Greeks anyone who was not of the Greek culture was a nobody All others were-considered to be uneducated and therefore “foolish” So, when Paul spoke of the Greeks and Barbarians, he was referring to the whole human race He was identifying all who needed to hear the Gospel of salvation, Greeks, and Barbarians His point was that the Gospel was for a world of sinners, and he must share the Gospel-Both to the wise, (The “Greeks”) and to the unwise. (The Barbarians) When Paul speaks of the “wise” and “unwise,” he refers to all groups of people, all who have sinned No one is left out, Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; In fact, he covers us all as individuals, regardless of our character before salvation, Tit 3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in Page 1 of 4 malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. All are of the sin nature and need to be saved, Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Culture, upper class, high society, wealth, intelligence, or education do not qualify you for God’s grace Being of lower-class society, unrefined, uneducated, poor, and illiterate do not disqualify you from grace No personal qualifications merits God’s grace unto salvation, Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: Salvation is God’s gift to the lost, to sinners Hell-bound, Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: The truth of our salvation is “For by grace,” grace, the unmerited favor of God “Grace” is God giving us everything for nothing from us, giving to us what we do not deserve “Faith” is the channel through which the work of God’s grace flows “Through Faith,” faith opens the door of the heart and allows the grace of God to come in “Faith” is the commitment and the agreement with God, “faith” says, “I agree” with you God Faith says, God, I want to be saved, I need it, I am nothing, I have nothing, I come with nothing Faith says, I am weak and empty, I am ready and willing, I receive, and I accept Jesus as my Savior God’s grace will not come into the heart when there is doubt, dissension, or denial toward God Grace does not enter a heart of uncertainty or unbelief, or rejection of God’s Word It is “faith” that says, I am ready for the grace of God to work in my life and give me a “New Life” But how is it that “faith” is possible? Is “faith” something that we have accomplished on our own? Our salvation is not because of our will, our works, our efforts, our religion, or our righteousness Paul says, “and that not of yourselves,” what is it that is “not of yourselves?” Is it the grace, is it the faith, or is it both? That which is “not of yourselves” refers-back to the whole context of salvation The whole process of our salvation is of God and not of ourselves, remember the old expression “When you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he didn’t get there by himself” When you see a Christian living for Christ, you know that they didn’t get there by themselves If it were not of God, there would be no grace, no faith, and there would be no salvation Paul was no different from all other sinners, he did not deserve salvation, grace was bestowed upon him, 1Co 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Paul was aware of the wonder of it all, “God’s grace, greater than all my sin, grace, grace, God’s grace!!! Which is why Paul said, “I am debtor” to all, Paul knew that he was debtor to all classes of people Are there people that we refuse to stand before and present the gospel of salvation to them? Are there people that we look down upon and prefer not to sit beside them in church? Paul did not agree with the sin of any sinner, but he knew that Jesus died for all sinners, 1Pe 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. The Jews believed that there were only two kinds of people in the world, Jews, and heathens To the Jew, all non-Jews were Gentiles, and all Gentiles were heathens God says there are only two kinds of people, those who are saved and those who are lost Those who are spiritually alive and those who are spiritually dead, 1Jn 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (Everyone one we meet is either saved or lost) The Gospel is the Gospel of grace, it is the “good news” for “all sinners” Every member of the human-race must hear the Gospel, today Christians must hear and agree with Jesus, Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Paul wanted to do all that he could for all people, that is why he was committed to the Gospel I AM COMMITTED--Rom 1:15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. Paul was committed to do his part for the cause of society, “as much as in me is” Paul’s mind, heart, and will was set upon sharing the gospel with all lost souls Page 2 of 4 Paul was ready, willing, and able, too often our problem is not ability, but availability, we are not ready For Paul it was time to quit talking the talk and start walking the talk, he was ready to “Go” How important is “Go?” It is the beginning of the “Great Commission,” Mat 28:19 “GO” ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: As Christians we must “Go,” and we must “Go” now, today is the day of salvation, 2Co 6:2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) Today we are witnessing the longsuffering of God, the opportunity for the lost to be saved, 2Pe 3:15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; Peter had already presented the reason for the longsuffering of God, 2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God will wait a long time for sinners to repent before His judgment falls upon them We can look in the mirror and know that God is longsuffering, we can take-a look at our own life We can look at America and see God’s patience, but we have-to ask how much longer will it last? We can look at the world of sin that we live in today and know that God has waited a long time But we can look in the Bible and know that the day will come when God’s patience wears out, 2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. The verse begins “But” which tells us that there will be a change from that described in verse 9 In contrast to the day of God’s longsuffering, patience, grace. mercy, and salvation There will come the time known as the “Day of the Lord,” which will end this present age of Grace Both OT and NT present it as the day when God’s wrath will be poured out upon a sinful world Scripture teaches that the world will not be ready to face God when Jesus returns Those who are lost will not be ready to stand before God when the Day of the Lord begins They will be taken by surprise, the world is not expecting a day of God’s judgment to come As Christians we must take the opportunity of today to witness to the lost, we must be “ready” “I am ready” is a strong statement in the original, Paul knew that he must put forth a strong effort Paul must be eager to share the gospel, if he did not give it his all, he would not do it at all (Agree?) Is it true of us that we more often do not commit to sharing the gospel than the times we do? Many Christians have been “aiming” to go share the gospel for a long time, we talk about it all the time It is time to quit “aiming,” it is time to pull the trigger, it is now time to fire forth the gospel of salvation Paul was eager to serve God to the fullness of his ability, which is not true of too many Christians today Too many of us are not ready to be all that we can be for Christ at all-times I know that I am not ready to be all that I can be all-of the time (What about you?) There are times that I want to be all that I can be for Christ (I am sure there are times when you do too) But there are many times that I am not what I should be for Christ (What about you?) We talk about being ready, it is time to quit talking about it and start doing it, it is time to be committed Paul had a passion to preach the gospel, he had every reason to share the gospel with every person There was no reason why he should not “preach the gospel,” 1Co 9:16 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! “Woe” is an expression of intense sorrow or pain, referring to grief and misery “Woe” is the opposite state of being blessed, what a blessing it is to proclaim the gospel to the lost Hear Paul, I am ready to preach the gospel, to bring forth good news, bring glad tidings, to evangelize “To preach” refers to making known the good news of the Gospel of salvation, to “evangelize” Conservative churches want to be known as an “Evangelical Church” What is an evangelical church supposed to be? A church that faithfully proclaims “the Gospel” Paul was spiritually able, Paul was spiritually willing, Paul was spiritually ready How can we be spiritually ready today? Through prayer, Bible study, and fellowship with other Christians Page 3 of 4 We must encourage, excite, and motivate each other when we meet-together Our goal should be to excite each other, Christians have more to be excited about than anyone else There is nothing more exciting for the Christian than being ready to preach the gospel As a preacher, “To preach the gospel” speaks to me personally As a pastor I have the responsibility of preaching every Sunday Years ago I adopted a policy that I heard from an older preacher one who had preached for many years He said, as a preacher, do not get up on Sunday morning with the wrong attitude Do not say, “It’s Sunday, I have to preach a sermon,” but say, “It’s Sunday, I have a sermon to preach” Let me apply that policy to you as a Christian, don’t get up on Sunday morning with the wrong attitude Do not say, “It’s Sunday, I have to go listen to the preacher” But say, “It’s Sunday, I can go listen to the preacher” I can go listen to the gospel, I can learn the gospel, I can be motivated to share the gospel with the lost Paul explained “The gospel” in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Paul begins 1 Corinthians 15 with the importance of the “Good News” of salvation Paul defines the “Gospel” for us in the first four verses Paul says four things about the Gospel and the Corinthians: (1) I preached the Gospel to you (2) You received the Gospel (3) You stand firm upon the Gospel (4) You have been saved and are being saved by the Gospel There is nothing more important than the Gospel, the Gospel must be declared, 1Co 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; They were “brethren” because they heard and received the gospel of salvation Salvation is only through the Gospel, 1Co 15:2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. “You are saved” is a promise of our past, present, and future salvation, which is an eternal salvation What is a “vain salvation?” There is no thought of a loss of eternal salvation in Paul’s words “In vain” means “without purpose,” to no avail, without cause, without effect, useless A salvation that had no effect upon your life is a “vain salvation” A salvation that has no effect upon the life of others is a “vain salvation” The opposite of a vain salvation is a profitable salvation, one that lives and preaches the Gospel The truth of the Gospel is that Jesus died for our sins, 1Co 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; “First of all,” because of its importance, in order of priority the Gospel must be above all else The Gospel is of utmost importance, there is nothing more important to preach than the gospel Paul preached the same Gospel that he had “received,” the Gospel that gave him a “New Life” Man cannot change the truth of the Gospel to suit what he wants to believe Man cannot teach or preach a Gospel according to what he thinks it should be The Gospel that Paul believed and preached must be the same Gospel that is preached today Paul clearly defines the Gospel in verses 3 & 4 by the word “that” That Christ died (verse 3) That he was buried (verse 4) that he rose again (verse 4) It is a living Gospel because Jesus arose from the grave and lives forever, 1Co 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: Which is “the Gospel we must preach” Page 4 of 4