THE GOSPEL THAT GIVES HOPE PART 1

Introduction

-As the world has been turned upside down and life as normal has been upended, there a lot of different messages that people are putting out there to help people cope and wade through the waters of this uncharted territory.

-Unfortunately, the messages that try to be helpful often call people to rely on something that in the long run will be no help at all.

~There are messages of just merely remaining positive and to believe in yourself and put your best foot forward and pull yourself up by your bootstrap.

~There are messages about things only getting better, just hang on tight. Or messages that this politician or that politician will help solve the crisis.

~But, in all honesty, these are all empty clichés since nothing that they point to offer really any hope of any kind that will last.

-Religious messages have not fared any better. What hope does Islam/Buddhism/Hinduism offer? The answer to all of these is NONE!

~Sadly, there have been Christians of the non-orthodox kind that have put messages out there that are no better that the pop psychology offered by everything else.

-For example, on April 2nd, one of the more famous and prominent prosperity gospel televangelists claimed the message that he could invoke Jesus’ name and blow a strong and hot wind at COVID-19 and destroy it.

~In his video, he first screamed out, with his sidekicks then repeating him, saying things like: “Wind! Almighty! Strong! South Wind! Heat! Burn this thing! In the name of Jesus!”

~And then he went on to scream at Satan telling him to bow his knee and fall on his face (ironically having a very satanic look to his face and a satanic growl in his voice) before finally looking at the camera, yelling “COVID-19!” and literally blowing like this <BLOW>--and that’s supposed to make the virus disappear.

-Well, here we are on April 26th and COVID-19 is still around which exposes that the message that this guy and his cronies try and sell the people of the world is not the message that is needed. Their message is a message of false beliefs coming from the mouths of false teachers.

~It is not a message from God, and it is not the message that is found in Scripture and it is certainly not a message of hope. The only message that will give hope to the people on this planet in a time of crisis is the PURE GOSPEL MESSAGE.

-However, false teachers with false teachings have hijacked the term GOSPEL and given it all sorts of different ideas and nuances. But only when you grasp the gospel given by God in His Word will a message of hope come to you and your family and your community. And that is what I want to give today, and actually will probably be talked about over the next several weeks because this is of utmost importance.

-In the passage that we are looking at today Paul introduces himself to the church in Rome (a church he did not plant and has never visited). In it he highlights the message that he was called to proclaim because that message is the only hope for a sinner’s salvation and a believer’s security.

~It is the message that is needed now because without that salvation and security there is no hope for anyone during this crisis. If we don’t get this message right, then all is lost.

-My desire is that we would have a deeper understanding and appreciation for the gospel, that it gives you hope in uncertain times, and that you’d be able to articulate the gospel to others if they should ask or inquire

Romans 1:1–7 ESV

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

-What does Paul highlight about the gospel in this passage—several points that we will touch on over several weeks:

I) The particularity of the gospel (v. 1)

-The gospel is particular—it is peculiar, it is unique, it is specific, it is exact.

~You notice in v. 1 that Paul says the message he has is not merely A gospel, but it is THE gospel. There are not several gospels out there that will bring hope to the world, there is only ONE gospel that brings hope to the world, and Paul was called to preach that ONE gospel.

-Sure, every philosophy and religion out there claims to have truth … claims to give knowledge … claims to be helpful … claims to give hope and inspiration and help and peace and joy. And yet, each philosophy and religion out there contradicts all the other philosophies and religions out there. They can’t all be right, so you have to choose one message.

-The whole concept of religious and philosophical plurality is a lie. It cannot sustain itself. Plurality states that there are many roads to God, to peace, to nirvana, to hope, to whatever it is a person is looking for. They claim all religions and philosophies are created equal and go to the same place. But if they contradict one another in very important matters, then they can’t all be true, and that means they don’t all lead to the same place. It is logically impossible for contradictory belief systems to get to the same destination.

-And so, let me talk to our children and youth and young adults out there. The more freedom you get as you grow up, the more you are going to be exposed to people out there that will try and sell you a message that goes against everything that you have ever learned growing up in church from your parents and family and Sunday School teachers and pastors—assuming you grew up in a church that preaches and teaches the Bible in its proper context.

~They will try to persuade you that what they believe is as true (if not more true) than the gospel message you heard taught from the Bible.

~Do not be deceived. If what they say contradicts the gospel message preached from the Bible, do not accept it, do not believe it, do not listen to it.

-You might not be able to answer all their questions and you might not be able to contradict all their arguments, but that doesn’t mean that they are right. Study the gospel message in the Bible for yourself so you know what you believe and why you believe it.

-All these other messages do not lead to salvation … security … hope. Paul says that there is only one gospel message. It is THE gospel message—accept no substitutes.

-Paul ran into the problem that one of the churches that he planted started giving heed to a gospel message that was not THE gospel message. And getting THE gospel message right is so important that he gives this warning:

Galatians 1:6–9 (ESV)

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

-The particularity of the gospel is being lost even within Christian circles in America:

According to Barna research from a few years back, 81% of Americans firmly believe in some type of life after death, with 9% considering it a possibility and about 10% believing that death brings utter finality. And while 43% of respondents said that Christianity is their passport to glory, 15% say that they will get to heaven because they "have tried to obey the 10 Commandments." Another 15% expect to gain admittance because "they are basically a good person." Among the others, 6% believe that God is letting everyone in, no matter what."

-So, 15% of Americans think the 10 commandments is the gospel, 15% think that golden rule is the gospel, and 6% think that universalism is the gospel. That’s 36%! If you subtract that from 43% who say that they are Christians, that leaves only 7% of Americans who might believe a true gospel. Or, just looking at the number of Christians, (if the numbers are to be believed) only maybe 16% of American Christians believe in the particular Biblical gospel.

-Now, do you understand the importance of getting the gospel message out there? The 10 commandments are not your hope. The golden rule is not your hope. The belief that God will save everyone is a lie and gives no hope. Only the particular gospel message will give you hope.

~That means you need to deny and give up all the false messages with all the false hopes and cling to the one, particular gospel.

-To understand more of this message of hope:

II) The implication of the gospel (v. 1)

-What does the gospel imply? I want to briefly consider what the word gospel means—if the message is the gospel, then what is gospel?

-The word in the original language literally means a good message—we take it to mean good news, good tidings, or glad tidings. The English word for gospel comes from the Anglo-Saxon term “god-spell” which means good story. The gospel is the good news/story about God’s love for humanity, including you and me, such that He gave His Son.

-We live in a world that seems to be filled with nothing but bad news. Every day we hear about the growth of cases of COVID and the growth of the number of those who have died from the disease. We hear the bad news about the effect on the economy, and nothing but political infighting in our government. We feel the bad news of being isolated at home from those we love, unable to go out and do what we used to be able to go out and do.

-But bad news has always been around. The effects of sin have so corrupted this world that we have natural disasters and moral disasters. We bear witness daily to man’s inhumanity to man, and we see the effects of time and age as people waste away from the strength that they once had.

-People seek so many ways of escaping the realities of the bad news so as not to completely give themselves over to despair or depression—but this escape is unhealthy. As people seek escape by abusing substances or abusing their spirits or abusing their mind or abusing their bodies, as people try to escape through sports and entertainment and mindless nothingness, they still are not able to outrun bad news.

-There are a lot of times when the good news doesn’t outweigh the bad news:

Author Hugh Halter talked about a time when he frantically woke up from an unplanned nap in an airport terminal and noticed that no one else was still in the seating area. He went to the ticket agent who said to him: “Well sir, I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is that you did sleep through the boarding process, but the good news is that you can now go back to sleep and relax for another seven hours before the next flight leaves.”

~That didn’t do too much to ease his mind

-Now, the only way to deal with the bad news of this world is to overcome it with the biblical good news. The only way to overcome despair and depression is by allowing that good news to so overwhelm you that it snuffs out the bad. And that is what the gospel is. The gospel is eternal good news.

~Good news that God cares

~Good news that God acted

~Good news that God intervened

~Good news that God saved

~Good news that God empowers

~Good news that God rules and reigns in the hearts of men who will accept the good news

-The gospel is good news that Jesus Christ rescues us from the bad news of sin—all its punishments, all its powers, all its effects, all its consequences. The good news is that God took care of our biggest problem, and so He is more than able to take care of all our other problems in His time in His way.

-The gospel is good news for the sinner that God made a way to overcome the sin barrier preventing you from coming to Him. The gospel is good news to the believer that as a child of God you have access to Him and His power.

-Martin Luther wrote this about the term GOSPEL:

Evangel (gospel) is a Greek word that means a good message, good tidings, good news, a good report, which one sings and tells with rejoicing. So when David overcame the huge Goliath, the good report and the comforting news came among the Jewish people that their terrible enemy had been slain, that they had been delivered, and that joy and peace had been given to them; and they sang and danced and were happy because of this.

So the evangel (gospel) of God is a good piece of news, a war-cry. The gospel has resounded in all the world, proclaimed by the apostles. It tells of a true David who fought with sin, death, and the devil, overcame them, and thereby delivered, without any merit of their own, all those who were held captive in sin, were plagued by death, and were overpowered by the devil. He made them righteous, gave them life, and saved them.

-This is good news. God delivered us from the destruction that was our due, rescuing us unto Himself. The particular gospel is good news that gives us hope and joy.

III) The author of the gospel (v. 1)

-You notice in v. 1 that it is called the gospel of GOD. It is not the gospel of Paul—all the truths of the gospel that Paul would write about in this epistle is not something he just kind of made up as he went along. And it is not the gospel of any other human either.

-God is the author of the gospel. That means that the idea of sending Jesus the Son to save sinners and rule and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords was completely God’s idea that He has had for all of eternity.

-When you think of it, God the Son becoming a human so that He could die like a criminal as a substitutionary sacrifice for the enemies of God who rebelled against Him, so that then the Son would be crowned King for eternity is not really a plan any human could even conceive. No man would make a plan that went through the cross in order to get to the throne.

-God, therefore, is obviously the source and architect of the gospel—born out of His infinite wisdom and unending love for humanity.

-The gospel was not some sort of plan B. When the Fall of mankind happened, God did not look at it and wonder what He was going to do next. The gospel was not some sort of afterthought but was always at the forefront of God’s mind toward those He created in His image.

~According to Paul:

Ephesians 3:11 (ESV)

11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord,

-This is borne out throughout Scripture:

~Acts 2:23 says that the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God

~Acts 4:28 says that the gospel was the plan that God had predestined to take place

~Acts 15:18 tells us the gospel was known from of old—from eternity

~Eph 1:4 says we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world

~2 Timothy 1:9 tells us that the gospel of God was given in Jesus Christ before the ages began

~1 Peter 1:20 tells us that Jesus being the Savior and Lord was foreknown before the foundation of the world

-Steve Lawson has this to proclaim about the gospel of God:

No denomination could have designed it. No church could have crafted it. No seminary could have scripted it. No board of elders could have ever come up with this plan. Only God could have come up with this solution. The source of the gospel is God Himself. That is why to receive the gospel is to receive God Himself. To reject the gospel is to reject God Himself. God is the source of the gospel. That is why there is a zero tolerance policy for any tampering with the gospel. No church, theologian, or pastor may add to the gospel, take away from the gospel, or try to tweak the gospel. This is the gospel of God.

Conclusion

-This is the particular gospel, the good news that Jesus saves. And since it is the gospel of the eternal unchanging God it is an eternal unchanging message.

~There is a lot of uncertainty in our day and age, but there is never any uncertainty about the gospel of God. God will not change His mind or His method or His means.

-Theologian John Wesley:

When I was young I was sure of everything; in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before; at present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to me.

-You might not be sure of much anymore, but you can be certain that there is only one gospel message that brings the good news that God had a plan for your salvation and security.

-Pastor Tim Keller wrote:

The Gospel is not about choosing to follow advice, it’s about being called to follow a King. Not just someone with the power and authority to tell you what needs to be done—but someone with the power and authority to do what needs to be done, and then to offer it to you as good news.

-The gospel summarized is Jesus died and rose for you, and offers you eternal life if you trust Him by faith and repentance.

~Or maybe you have been confused by the gospel message because you have heard so much falsehood…

-Christian, allow this good news to strengthen you during trying times. Allow its truths to determine your course. Once you are a Christian, you don’t stop believing the gospel, but you let the gospel be your guide, speaking truth into your life.