God’s Righteous Gospel

I. The Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation

This idea of the gospel as God’s power is seen elsewhere in Paul’s writings…

1 Thessalonians 1:4–5 (ESV)

For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

The Gospel isn’t simply mental assent. The Gospel comes in power…it changes men.

Getting the Gospel right is the most important thing and there is not a close second. To miss the Gospel is to miss the boat…and if you lived in Noah’s time that was bad, even catastrophic. Why is it so important? Because it is THE power of God for salvation…this is the one way that God has prescribed for us to be saved.

Trans: Let’s break that down…we will look at the last thing first…

A. Salvation is Deliverance

that begs the question…

What are we being delivered from or saved from?

Galatians 1:4 “who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,”

Colossians 1:13 “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,”

Romans 7:24 “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

Romans 6:7 “For one who has died has been set free from sin.”

Romans 6:13 “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”

What a wonderful salvation, but ultimately our delivery is not simply from these things, but from the One offended by our sin.

B. Ultimate Delivery is from the Wrath of God

Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

Colossians 3:5–6 “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.”

First Application: Fear God…

Hebrews 10:31 “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Matthew 10:28 “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Fear of the Lord leads to…

Knowledge (Prov. 1:7)

Wisdom (Psalm 111:10)

Life (Prov. 19:23)

We must fear God…we must fear His wrath…a wrath that awaits every sinner.

Trans. That is why we must get the gospel right…because it is THE power of God for salvation.

C. Salvation Belongs to the Lord

Question: What is the Bible about?

Revelation of God’s character/nature/Person

Revelation of man’s nature…and his standing before God.

It is a collection of books that give us principles for living rightly.

Question: Is the Bible about God’s glory or man’s salvation?

It is about God’s glory and God’s salvation given to man. Salvation of man is a means to God’s glory.

See, it isn’t about my salvation or your salvation. It is about God receiving the glory due Him by saving unworthy, rebellious sinners.

Listen, I am not saying that your salvation is unimportant…it is. I am not saying that my salvation is unimportant…it is. God cares deeply for you and for me. He saved us because He loves us…

1 John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”

But I will not claim credit for something that was given to me…

Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Salvation belongs to the Lord…He gets the credit…He gets the glory. I will have none, because the only thing I provided was my wretched sin.

Psalm 115:1 “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!”

Second Application: Thank God

Question: When you are given a gift what do you say?

Hopefully you say thank you…how much more should we be thankful for a gift that gives us saves us from sin and death and allows us to live eternily with God in Heaven?

2 Corinthians 9:15 “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”

Trans: Salvation belongs to the Lord, but who is it for?

II. The Gospel is for Everyone

John 3:16–17 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

There is no distinction made here…the gospel is available to anyone. As Paul says in Galatians…

Galatians 3:28–29 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

I find it necessary in our ‘present evil age’ to point out that Paul is not destroying gender barriers here when he says there is no male or female…He is simply saying in God’s eyes men and women are both image bearers and loved. There is no distinction in rank…we still have male and female!!

Trans. So the gospel is for everyone…some could begin to take a universalist position…meaning that ultimately everyone will be saved…none will be lost. Is that possible? No. what the passage says is…

A. The Gospel is For Everyone Who Believes

Some questions may come to mind here…

Isn’t ‘believing’ an act on our part? Yes.

Wouldn’t that mean we ‘did’ something and thus have some ownership of our salvation? Yes and no. Yes you believed, no you have no ownership in your salvation.

Let me explain…

Everyone of us has free will…every day we make many decisions that have an impact on us and those around us. The choices we make matter and the choice to believe or disbelieve the gospel message matters the most. We will be saved by believing and condemned by rejecting the message.

But we act freely according to our nature…look with me in John 3…

John 3:1–8 (ESV)

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Question: Did Jesus tell Nicodemus how to be saved?

Being ‘born again’…that is not ‘salvation’. It is what we call regeneration. We must be given a new heart…

Ezekiel 36:26 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

That takes place before you believe…he fundamentally changes your nature so that you now can “see the kingdom”.

That’s why we pray for the work of the Spirit…the most eloquent words and lofty arguments we have, without the help of the Holy Spirit are about as helpful as a field goal in the fourth quarter when you are down five touchdowns. They just don’t matter.

Those words…our words do matter when the Spirit picks them up and uses them to His ends.

Third Application: Pray for the work of the Spirit in the lives of the lost.

…that they might hear the Gospel and respond. Pray for opportunities to share the gospel…pray for people and over the conversations you will have with them. Lean on the Holy Spirit. Trust Him to use your weakness to display His power.

Jonathan Edwards, when he was 17, wrote some resolutions about how he would live and conduct himself. In June this year I listed some…number 7 reads…

Resolved…to always remember the gospel is the power of God for salvation, not my eloquence.

That is a good thing for all of us to remember…

Trans: So we see the Gospel is for everyone who believes. Clearly there is no distinction among people groups, classes, or genders.

But you might say…doesn’t Paul here make a distinction…separating Jew and Gentile..

B. The Gospel Went to the Jews First

Question: Does this give the Jews preeminence over other people?

No…to quote Rob Ventura…Paul “is speaking historically and he is speaking chronologically.”

Historically: The Jews were the chosen people of God. The covenants were made with them…they were entrusted with the oracles, as Paul says.

Chronologically: Obviously in order of time the gospel came to them first…Jesus was a Jew! All the disciples were Jews!

The Jewish people were used in mighty ways by the Lord, but we must remember…

They are not more special than any other believer.

They are in need of the Gospel…God saves all men the same way. Remember the Gospel is THE power of God for salvation.

But we can be thankful to God for them and all the ways that He used them while the rest of the world (us) remained in darkness.

Trans: But in God’s providence the Jewish people (in general) rejected the Gospel and thus allowed the Gospel to spread to the known world.

C. The Gospel Went to the Gentiles.

Romans 1:16 “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.”

Greek here encompasses all the gentiles…we’ve already seen that Paul was under obligation even to the barbarians earlier in the chapter.

This is the ‘mystery’ of the Gospel..what the Old Testament concealed the New Testament revealed…

Ephesians 3:6 “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

This was always God’s plan…to save people from every tribe and tongue and nation…but how would that happen if the Gospel remained closed up with the Jewish people? It had to go forward. Here are a few verses to clarify…

Acts 13:46 “And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.”

Looking back to Abraham…

Genesis 18:18 “seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?”

Genesis 22:18 “and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.””

Genesis 26:4 “I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,”

Galatians 3:16 “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.”

So it is through Christ that all are saved and that is what makes us true children of Abraham, not our ethnicity as Paul has said…

Galatians 3:7 “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.”

Trans: So we have established that

This Gospel is God’s power for salvation.

This Gospel is for everyone who believes without distinction.

While this Gospel is for everyone, it is not our Gospel in the true sense. It isn’t the white man’s Gospel as some have said…it isn’t the black man’s Gospel, or the Asian or Hispanic…It’s for everyone, but it is from One…It is God’s Gospel!

We aren’t gatekeepers for the Gospel…it is a message for the world.

Now that we know these things what exactly is the Gospel? What exactly are we to believe? What exactly does the Gospel do?

III. The Gospel Reveals God’s Righteousness

Emphasis on the word revealed…this isn’t something we can discover it is something given to us…

Matthew 16:16–17 “Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”

Trans: Again, a gift. But what does righteousness have to do with salvation? Righteousness is required for salvation.

A. Righteousness Required

Righteousness is the idea of being made right or justified before God. It is the single most important thing for you in all the universe…your standing before God. How does God view you?

Question: What is necessary for us to be made right with God?

Perfection…that is all…to live perfectly every second of every day of your life. That means if you are 70 years old you would have to have never had a single stray sinful thought in 36,792,000 seconds.

Matthew 5:48 “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Trans: ILL: Convo with Illinois nurse…she was stunned when I said that…she said, “Who can do that?” That is the right question….

Righteousness is required (no way around it). But, praise be to God, righteousness has been provided…let’s look now to…

B. God’s Righteousness

Romans 1:17 “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.””

It is God’s righteousness that makes us right with Him.

Salvation is … bringing back to normal, the Creator-creature relation.

A. W. Tozer

Trans: That is done by God’s righteousness…but what is this righteousness? Is it an attribute of God, like His mercy?

It is, in fact, an attribute. But it is MUCH more than that.

1. God’s Righteousness is Seen in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ

a. It was promised beforehand

In fact the verse here is a quote from the Old Testament…Habakkuk 2:4 ““Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.” (faith in what?)

Jeremiah 23:5–6 ““Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”

There it is! The Lord is our righteousness! Christ is that Righteous Branch!

b. Fulfilled in Christ

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Question: How was this done?

By His active obedience. This is Christ actively doing right. He didn’t live a life seeking simply to avoid sin, but He lived an active life of doing righteousness. He perfectly lived out the Law…something we have no ability to do.

By His passive obedience. This was His receiving death on the cross. Do you not think the One by Whom and through Whom all things are made and hold together could not have prevented this? Of course He could have. He willing received the punishment due to us.

Important note: Christ’s righteousness in not infused into us, it is imputed to us. This means we are not made perfect. That perfection will happen only at our time of glorification. Instead, we are being made perfect and in the mean time when God sees us He sees Christ’s righteousness resting on us. This means we do not have the ability to attain to ‘sinless perfection’ in this life, but even so God sees us as righteous.

Trans: But how do we receive this precious gift?

C. God’s Righteousness is Revealed from Faith for Faith

God’s righteousness is revealed by our faith.

God’s righteousness is revealed for the strengthening of our faith.

Again, all of this is a work of God. In His mysterious providence He is working on, in, and through us in order to accomplish His purposes in our life and in the world at large.

1 Corinthians 2:12–14 “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

Genesis 15:6 “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

Philippians 3:9 “and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—”

It is all God. Let’s not have a self-righteous attitude toward our salvation, as though we have attained to or earned anything. Give God all the glory for His wonderful grace toward us, sinners.

Mark 9:24 “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!””

or as Anselm of Canterbury has said:

“I believe so that I may understand.”

It is wonderful that the Gospel has been revealed, it is even better that it can be received! At the end of the age ALL will see God’s righteousness. But not all will have received it and none at that time will be able to receive it. The time of reckoning will be here!

So saving knowledge of God comes by faith in Jesus Christ…believing that Christ accomplished all…that the work He did in living a perfect life, atoning for my sins on the cross by accepting the wrath intended for me, by defeating death, and now by reigning at the right hand of the Father was enough! Believing that He finished the job!

This is what I mean when I say we must get the Gospel right. We cannot add to or take from the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is perfection…His work was perfection.

If you believe that you will be saved.

If you continue to believe that you will be sanctified.

If your endure in that belief you will be glorified!

Praise be to God.

Trans: What does it look like to apply Gospel truth to our lives, because…

IV. The Gospel Produces Righteous Lives

A. The Gospel Produces a Life Unashamed

Psalm 40:10 “I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.”

Psalm 119:46 “I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame,”

Mark 8:38 “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.””

2 Timothy 1:8 “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,”

Question: Why would Paul even mention not being ashamed of the Gospel?

Because it would have been a temptation for them as it is for us to just remain quiet. The Gospel is simple in a world of complex. We just read that it is folly to the natural man…they think it is foolish.

Ill: Imagine for a moment you are asked to testify at a congressional hearing. The cameras are rolling and you are looking up at these distinguished men and women in their suits and they ask these questions:

Who is Jesus Christ?

Did He rise from the dead?

What is a Christian?

How might I be saved?

What happens if I don’t believe what you just said? Is there punishment?

How would you feel? How would you answer. If you answer faithfully you will be lambasted all over legacy media and social media. Are you willing to bear reproach for Christ? I pray so.

Trans: Answering those questions faithfully is a form of obedience..

B. The Gospel Produces a Life of Obedience Lived out by Its Power

There is one Gospel, but there are many gospel implications..Believing the Gospel will cause us to live our lives from the power of that Gospel. It will, or should, impact every decision we make.

John 14:15 ““If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

Salvation apart from obedience is unknown in the sacred Scriptures.5

A. W. Tozer

Although they have no part in gaining salvation, good works have a great deal to do with living out salvation. No good works can produce salvation, but many good works are produced by salvation.

John F. MacArthur

Question: Is there fruit in your life? If not, why not?

Conclusion:

I gave you three applications earlier.

Fear God

Thank God

Pray For the Work of the Spirit in the Lives of the Lost

Live Faithfully. Put your faith and trust completely in the Jesus Christ.

Live Boldly. Do not be ashamed of the Gospel or any part of the Word of God.

Because as John Stott put it…”The Gospel is both a debt to discharge and a power to experience.”

Ill: Let me give you an example of the Gospel being lived out in power. Green River Killer.

Today if you hear these words, believe and live..

Jesus Christ lived the life you could not live.

Died the death you could not die.

Bore the wrath you could not bear.

He defeated death who you could not defeat.

He reigns in Heaven (even today) with ALL authority.

Place your hope and trust in Him.