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00:00 to a fairly remote part of that country, a part of the country that to get into
00:05 you had to have special government permission to even be allowed in. And yes, we were there legally. We had the
00:11 permission. And while we were there, we were meeting with a group of Christian leaders and especially the people from
00:18 one particular tribe. They were telling about how the gospel was spreading among
00:23 their tribal group. This tribal group was from another major world religion
00:29 predominantly but many many people had been coming to faith in Christ through the witness of these Christians there.
00:36 As a matter of fact, so many people had come to faith that the leaders of the religious group, the major the
00:43 predominant religious group there, they came to the Christian leaders and said, "If you baptize one more person,
00:52 we're going to baptize you and you will not be coming up."
00:58 So here they were being threatened. Their lives were being threatened.
01:04 But yet they said, "Despite these death threats, we're still going to go back to
01:10 our people and continue sharing the gospel with them." They knew that unless
01:17 they shared the gospel, the other people in that area would not have the
01:23 opportunity to experience the power of God that comes that brings salvation to
01:30 all people who believe. So they continued sharing the gospel. Many, many
01:36 more people came to faith. And about a year after our second visit to this area, we received word that the
01:44 leaders of this other religious group had indeed begun to carry through with their threats of persecution.
01:50 Homes of Christians were burned, property destroyed. Many people were beaten severely.
01:58 Some of the Christian leaders were even taken back to an even more remote area, captured there, tortured mercilessly,
02:06 deprived of food, deprived of water. They were even using machetes and
02:11 knives, making cuts on their bodies. And one man in particular who after he was
02:17 released received medical help, but still to this day is not able to use his hands will because of the damage that
02:23 was done to him. When you hear this, you might ask, why? Why would a person continue to share the
02:31 gospel when they know that their life is in danger? Why would somebody be willing
02:38 to undergo such persecution and torture just to tell somebody else about Jesus?
02:45 Why not just keep your mouth shut and play it safe? I mean, after all, can't we be a witness just by living a good
02:52 life and being nice to people? Why take such a risk? Why be so eager to
02:59 proclaim the gospel? Why feel like you are under obligation to share the gospel with other people and you know it's
03:05 going to get you in trouble? These are questions we could also ask of
03:11 the Apostle Paul if he were here. Paul, why did you keep sharing the gospel? You
03:17 were stoned and left unconscious, almost dead. Paul, why did you keep telling people
03:23 about Jesus? You were beaten mercilessly. You were arrested. You were put in jail in stocks. And yet you
03:30 continued, Paul. Time and again people mobbed you.
03:36 They tried to hurt you. They brought a lot of harm upon you. Why did you not
03:42 just keep your mouth shut? Why did you feel indebted to these people to
03:47 continue sharing the gospel? Why so eager to take these risks? I mean, Paul,
03:54 after all, you'd been saved. You've been forgiven. You've been reconciled to God.
03:60 You know that you'll be going to heaven when you die. So, why not just take life
04:05 easy? Enjoy life. I mean, after all, Paul, you've already
04:10 taken three missionary journeys. Isn't that enough? You've done your part. Let
04:15 somebody else take the responsibility of sharing about Jesus.
04:22 Well, even though Paul was coming to the end of his third missionary journey and
04:28 even though he had frequently suffered terribly for sharing about Jesus,
04:34 this is what he wrote in the book of Romans. He said, "I am debtor both to
04:39 the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise."
04:47 or another translation instead of saying I am debtor says I am obligated
04:53 debtor is really a better translation so you might ask Paul why do you feel like you are a debtor to these people have
05:02 you borrowed something from them that you've got to give back to them no of course not see there's two ways that you
05:08 can be in debt we usually think of being in debt like if I were to borrow a
05:13 thousand ringots from you then I am in debt to you to pay you that thousand ringits back. Or if you loan me your
05:21 car, I borrow your car, I am indebted to you to give you your car back in the
05:27 same condition I found it. No scratches, no dents. But there's another way you can be in debt.
05:33 For example, if you hear that I'm going to Paneang and you say, "Hey, I've got a new car that I was going to let my
05:40 relatives in Paneang drive. Rather than you flying up there, would you be willing to drive my car up to
05:47 Benang and give it to my relatives and you give me the keys and there's a bright new shining car right in front of
05:53 me. But the car is not for me to keep. The car is for me to take to the people
05:59 that you've asked me to take it to and then leave it with them. This morning when the ushers came by, we
06:05 put money in the bag. But the money is not for the ushers to keep. The ushers
06:11 are indebted to see that the money is given for what it was for the purpose
06:16 for which it was given. And this is the way that Paul was in debt. He had received the gospel, but he did not
06:24 receive the gospel just to keep it for himself. He owed it. He was in debt to
06:31 the others to share the good news with them. The same is true for us. If you
06:36 have received the gospel, if you have received the Lord Jesus
06:42 Christ, it's not for you then to just keep this gospel message for yourself.
06:48 We too are debtors. We too are under obligation. Like Paul said,
06:55 I must tell the good news to everyone. The gospel is an unpaid debt and we owe
07:02 it to all the world. Paul realized that. So he continued writing and said, "So I
07:08 am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome." Now here
07:15 preach does not mean a long sermon like you're listening to right now, but rather preaching is just proclaiming or
07:21 sharing the good news about Jesus Christ. So don't think, "Oh, I'm not a
07:26 preacher, so that does not apply to me." Yes, if you're a believer in Jesus, it does apply to you because he's not
07:33 talking about standing on a stage and talking for 30 or 45 minutes. Rather,
07:39 just proclaiming, sharing simply the good news about Jesus.
07:45 Paul continued, then he said, for I am not ashamed of the gospel.
07:53 Now, we might be surprised when we hear Paul saying, "I am not ashamed of the
07:59 gospel." We would think, "Well, of course you're not ashamed, Paul. After all, you're a great missionary, a
08:05 wonderful preacher, a very successful evangelism. Obviously, you're not
08:10 ashamed." But yet, don't you think Paul faced the same temptations that we do?
08:17 Don't you think that he was also tempted at times to keep quiet, to stay out of trouble?
08:23 Jesus knew that his followers would experience very real temptation to be
08:29 ashamed of him and of his words. That's why he warned us about that.
08:35 He said, "For whosoever shall be ashamed of me in my words, of him shall the son
08:40 of man be ashamed." Jesus also said, "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny
08:49 before my father which is in heaven." Back in Paul's day, it was not
08:55 particularly popular to be a Christian. Didn't have any mega churches yet. You
09:00 didn't go and have a good time of fellowship, good time of entertainment.
09:06 It's kind of risky to be a Christian back in Paul's days. If he was speaking to the Jewish people,
09:13 they said, "Paul, you're a heretic. You're speaking blasphemy." When you attribute divinity to Jesus, that is
09:21 blasphemy. Everybody knows that God is one. He has no son.
09:27 But yet, their understanding was limited. They didn't realize that God was so much bigger than their own
09:34 preconceived ideas of who God was. Some of the Jews would also think if
09:40 Jesus were truly the Messiah, if he were the chosen one, if he is the one through
09:46 whom God is speaking to us, God surely would not have allowed him to die such a
09:52 horrible death. And they just did not understand that God's plans are different than our
09:59 plans. His ways, his thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts.
10:05 It was also not popular to share the gospel with the gentile people. The Gentiles believed in many, many
10:11 different gods, many spirits. There were many possibilities, many different options. If you didn't want to worship
10:18 that God, you could worship this god or you could just mix them all up together, no problem.
10:24 But to say there is no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved only through Jesus,
10:30 that was not popular. Plus, it sounded somewhat foolish to the Gentiles. I mean, after all, the cross
10:38 was a an instrument of execution for criminals and traitors.
10:44 How could somebody who died on the cross bring us forgiveness and salvation?
10:51 How could somebody who died on the cross be the Lord before whom all knees will
10:56 bow? It was not popular to be a Christian in Paul's day. If you were one, it was a
11:03 lot safer just to keep your mouth shut. And if you wanted to stay out of trouble, if you wanted to be popular, if
11:09 you wanted to be well-liked, just don't say anything about Jesus as being the only way to God. Don't say
11:17 that Jesus is the only one who can forgive sins. Definitely don't acknowledge that he is
11:23 the Lord before whom we should bow our knee. So I'm sure it was a temptation to Paul
11:30 just like it's a temptation to us at times just to be quiet to be ashamed to
11:36 speak up. So that's why Paul did write I am not ashamed of the gospel.
11:44 People had tried to shame Paul into silence. They had mocked him and jeered him, laughed at him, beaten him, stoned
11:52 him, jailed him. But he was willing to endure this public
11:57 shame. He was willing to lose face if necessary
12:02 in order to continue to proclaim the gospel. Although people did things to bring
12:08 shame on Paul, he remained unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we see
12:16 Paul saying, "I am a debtor. I am under obligation to share the gospel with all
12:22 people." He said, "I am eager to preach the gospel
12:27 and I am not ashamed of the gospel." Well, what is this gospel that Paul was
12:34 proclaiming that he was not ashamed of? We saw that last week. Want to review
12:39 just briefly. We saw last week that the gospel is the gospel of God. It's not
12:44 man's philosophy, manmade religion, but it's God's gospel.
12:51 We saw that it was God's plan from the very beginning of time.
12:56 His plan that is in for all people. We see that the gospel tells about Jesus,
13:03 the son of God, becoming flesh, living among men. And as a seed of David, that
13:09 means he was the Messiah, the chosen one, the anointed king who would be reigning on David's throne. And we also
13:15 saw last week that Jesus was crucified and then raised and through the power of
13:22 his resurrection, it was confirmed that he was indeed the son of God. That he's the one who has power to forgive sin.
13:30 And we also saw last week that Jesus Christ is Lord.
13:35 Another place where we can see the gospel clearly presented in scripture in first is first Corinthians.
13:41 Here we see Christ died for our sins according to the scripture.
13:46 He was buried. He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.
13:52 And he appeared to many witnesses. This is the gospel message. This is the
13:58 message Paul was indebted to others to share. This is what he was eager to
14:04 proclaim. This is the gospel that he was not ashamed of. That Jesus, the eternal
14:11 son of God, became flesh, paid for our sins by his death on the cross, was
14:17 raised back to life. He appeared to many witnesses.
14:22 And this is historical fact, not dogma, not philosophy.
14:29 Jesus is the Lord before whom every knee will bow.
14:35 So Paul was ready to proclaim the gospel. He was not ashamed of the gospel
14:41 because he knew that the gospel was the power of God for salvation
14:46 to all who believe. In that statement, we see three things
14:52 asserted about the gospel. We see that the gospel is powerful.
14:57 We see that the gospel's power comes from God. And we see that God's power of the
15:03 gospel is what brings salvation. First of all, God is powerful.
15:11 Now, back in those days when Paul wrote this, Rome was the greatest power on earth. And they were known for their
15:17 military might. But yet the gospel conquered Rome in
15:22 just a little over 200 years. No, not by a military force that was greater than
15:28 Rome's force, but rather by the power of God's grace, God's love, God's
15:34 forgiveness. Military might can force outward
15:39 obedience. It can force subservience, but it can't change hearts.
15:46 God's love, God's grace is more powerful because it can change a human heart.
15:54 Some of you may have seen the movie that's been recently in the cinemas, Lay Miseraba.
16:01 Man named Jean Valjon, had been in prison for just a minor crime, but he'd
16:07 become quite bitter because of his time in prison. When he got out of prison, he
16:13 ends up stealing from a priest who is trying to help him. And when he is
16:18 arrested, the priest tells the constable, "Oh no, he didn't steal that from me. That was a
16:25 gift I gave to him." And Jean Valjon was so surprised to
16:31 experience for the first time in his life love and acceptance and grace.
16:37 And that totally transformed his life.
16:43 The power of the gospel is through the love and the grace of God.
16:49 But we can also see the power that the gospel has in the fact that sin has been
16:54 defeated. The oldest strongest enemy of mankind,
17:00 death, has been defeated. And the reason the gospel has this power
17:07 is because that the gospel is the power of God. The gospel's power comes from God. And
17:16 throughout the gospel story, we see the gosp the power of God. When Jesus came to earth, God in human
17:25 flesh, we see God's power. The miracles, the mighty acts that Jesus
17:30 did, we see God's power. the resurrection as God defeated death, raising Jesus to
17:38 life. And God's power is still working in the gospel today as his Holy Spirit is
17:45 speaking to the hearts of us. God's power is working in our heart,
17:51 convincing us of the truth of the gospel message. God's spirit is working in our hearts to
17:57 convince us, convict us of sin, convict us of the need that we have for Jesus.
18:03 His spirit is enabling us to repent and respond in faith to Jesus.
18:10 This is God's power, not man's power. We cannot earn salvation. We don't have the
18:17 strength to be good enough and live a perfect life so that we can tell God, "Yeah, look at me. You have to let me in
18:23 because I have done so so much good. Our best efforts, the scriptures say,
18:30 are really nothing more than filthy rags. The gospel's power,
18:36 God's power of the gospel brings salvation. And only the gospel has power to bring
18:44 salvation. Why do we need salvation? Scriptures tell us that all people have
18:49 sinned. We've rebelled. We've gone our own way without paying attention to God.
18:56 We're separated from God both in this life as well as we will be separated
19:01 from him after this life for eternity. The penalty for this sin is death,
19:08 eternal death. But the gospel provides forgiveness of sin because Christ paid
19:14 the penalty. The gospel provides reconciliation with
19:20 God, a restored relationship, so we're no longer estranged from God.
19:26 The gospel power causes us to be born a new, born again. As we become God's
19:31 children and part of his special people, our guilt is taken away. Our shame is
19:38 removed. Through the power of God, we now receive a new nature and we become a new
19:45 creation. We're given God's power to live a life that glorifies him as we walk day by day
19:54 in faith. He gives us power to resist temptation, power to deny self,
20:02 and power to turn away from our self-centeredness and pride.
20:09 God's power of the gospel brings salvation also from the wrath that is to come. And when we get to verse 18 in our
20:16 text in Romans, it starts to talk about the wrath of God, the judgment, the
20:22 wrath, punishment of sin is a reality. But when we experience the power of God
20:29 through the gospel that brings salvation, we're going to then be spared from the wrath of God.
20:36 So the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
20:43 Believe is the verb. Faith would be the noun that goes with that. When we
20:49 believe in Jesus, we will experience the power of God. When we place our faith in
20:55 Jesus, we will be saved. The scriptures tell us, "Believe on the
21:01 Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." They also tell us, "For by grace you're
21:08 saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of
21:14 works." So the gospel's power is God's power,
21:19 not our religious rituals or activities of going to church, being baptized,
21:24 taking Lord's supper, giving, living an honest life. All those things are good,
21:29 but they are not what provides salvation. Jesus sacrificial death on the cross,
21:37 his resurrection, that what springs salvation. And God wants us to respond
21:42 to that good news in faith.
21:48 Faith is for all who believe. But it seems like in our world today
21:56 that there is some confusion about the meaning of faith. It's a
22:02 misunderstanding. You see, faith is more than just knowing facts and agreeing that something is
22:08 true. Faith is more than just mental ascent.
22:14 In saving faith, a person hears the Christian message.
22:19 Person is inconvinced that the gospel is true and then he totally yields his life to
22:26 God in response to the gospel. And all of this is made possible through
22:33 the power of God. The one who believes accepts the power
22:39 of God which is at work in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And
22:44 therefore he submits himself to this power of God, claiming no rights for
22:51 himself any longer, but willing and ready to trust himself wholly into the
22:58 hands of God, trusting God's grace and his wisdom.
23:03 In last week's sermon text, we also got some help to understand faith. We saw in
23:08 verse five of the text that Paul said, "We have received grace to bring about
23:13 the obedience of faith." Yes, faith is the correct response to
23:19 the gospel. Works will not save us, but faith is more than head knowledge. True
23:25 faith will result in obedience. And the reason faith results in
23:32 obedience is because we are placing our faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.
23:40 True faith in Jesus includes an element of submission since Jesus is Lord. The
23:47 saving faith of the Bible calls for a total unreserved entrusting of our lives
23:52 into the hands of God. There's a very strange and also
23:58 unbiblical teaching that is circulating among some evangelicals today.
24:05 I don't really understand it, but it seems like they think that you can somehow divide Jesus into several
24:11 different parts. Then you can pick and choose what parts you like. Kind of like if you go to a
24:16 buffet or a smorgus board. And the parts of Jesus you like, you receive that. the
24:22 parts of Jesus you don't like, you reject, forget about that. And then somehow that is supposed to constitute
24:29 faith. And of course, the good parts that they want, they want forgiveness. They want
24:34 blessings. Definitely want to go to heaven. Despite the jokes about hell, it's not going to be a fun place to be
24:40 in. So people are wanting all this good stuff, but then they don't want Jesus to
24:46 tell them what to do. They don't want Jesus meddling in their life. and they think that somehow they're able to have
24:53 faith by just taking part of Jesus that they like and rejecting the rest.
24:59 True saving faith includes receiving Jesus as Savior and as Lord. Faith
25:06 includes bowing our knee before Jesus.
25:13 Let's go back to verse 16 again. The gospel is the power of God for salvation
25:18 to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
25:26 The gospel is not just for one group of people. It's for all peoples. Now the
25:31 Jews back in Paul's day, they divided the world up into basically two different groups of people. Us and them.
25:39 People that are like us, everybody else that's not like us. And of course, we're
25:45 the best. And people from another ethnic background, another racial background, another linguistic background, another
25:52 cultural or another religious background. I'm not concerned about them. And God's
25:58 probably not concerned about them either. But no, that's not what Paul's saying
26:03 here. The gospel is not limited to just one group of people. It's not limited just to us and to people like me. The
26:11 gospel is for all peoples. We've already seen this truth earlier this morning in verse 14. As Paul said,
26:18 I'm a debtor to the Greeks and the barbarians. I am a debtor to the wise and the
26:24 foolish. And in last Sunday's sermons, we saw that Paul had received grace to
26:30 bring about the obedience of faith for his name's sake among all nations, among
26:36 all ethnic groups, among all races, among people from all different
26:42 religious backgrounds, not just obedience of faith from people
26:47 like me. The gospel is for all. And since the gospel is for all people,
26:55 there is not a second plan of salvation.
27:00 There is not a separate special plan for those who want to reject Jesus as their
27:05 Messiah. There's not a separate plan B for those who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as the
27:12 rightful Lord of their life. There's no other possibility for salvation if we
27:17 reject the gospel of Christ. No other plan, no matter who you are or
27:23 what group of people you belong to, because the gospel of God, is the power
27:28 of salvation for everyone, for all who believe, both Jews and
27:33 Greeks, for us and for them, for everybody.
27:39 Let's continue reading verse 17. For in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of
27:44 God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the righteous shall live
27:51 by faith. So the key phrase in this section is
27:56 that in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.
28:03 So, so far today, we've seen Paul says, "I am eager to preach the gospel." Why?
28:09 Because I'm not ashamed of the gospel. He's not ashamed of the gospel. Why?
28:15 Because it is the power of God to salvation. And why is the gospel the power of God
28:21 to salvation? Because in it, God's righteousness
28:26 is revealed. God is a righteous God.
28:33 God's actions are righteous. He makes righteousness available for us.
28:42 And looking at the righteousness of God, we can understand this in several different ways.
28:49 One, we see that the righteousness of God is an attribute or a characteristic of God. God is holy.
28:58 That means he's perfect, sinless, morally pure. And as such he cannot
29:03 tolerate sin, will not allow sin in his presence.
29:08 God is also just. He is fair. He's impartial.
29:15 When judgment day comes, he will judge justly and he cannot be bribed.
29:21 But because God is righteous, because that is one of his characteristics, that
29:26 then affects his actions, his deeds. God reveals his righteousness in action.
29:35 He punishes sin. Sin will be dealt with severely. The wages of sin is death. The
29:42 shedding of blood, the giving of a life is necessary in order for sin to be
29:48 forgiven. But also in the gospel, we see the fact
29:53 that God's righteousness is revealed by the fact that he provides a way of forgiveness.
29:59 No, God doesn't just wink at sin. He doesn't ignore it. A righteous God cannot just sweep sin under the carpet
30:06 and forget about it. Sin does bring death. But we see God's righteousness
30:13 by the sacrificial death of Jesus. As Jesus died to pay the penalty for sin
30:20 and then we place our faith in that, we experience God's righteousness as he
30:26 forgives our sin. The gospel also shows God's righteousness and the fact that God is
30:32 faithful to his covenant. God's righteous activity is to keep all the
30:37 promises he has made from the beginning of time as from the very beginning God has had the plan to bring about
30:43 salvation and his plan culminated with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. But the plan continues today and
30:50 God continues to be faithful, continues to keep his promises. As the scriptures
30:55 say in 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sin,
31:00 he is faithful and just, faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and
31:06 cleanse us from unrighteousness. So you can see how God's righteousness
31:12 is revealed in the gospel. But there's also another way to
31:18 understand this phrase, the righteousness of God.
31:24 Some translations instead of having the righteousness of God, they will interpret that rather than translate it,
31:30 but they will interpret it to say the righteousness from God is revealed.
31:36 And yes, we can see righteousness from God. Righteousness is a status that God
31:43 requires from us if we are to ever stand before him.
31:48 And it's a status that only he can achieve and that he has achieved through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the
31:53 cross. And it's the status that he bestows freely on all who trust in
32:00 Jesus. So the righteousness of God can be seen not only as an attribute or an action,
32:09 but it can also be seen as a free gift that he bestows on all who trust him.
32:16 God bestows on believers a righteous status.
32:21 Continue with verse 17. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
32:30 Now, you might ask, "What in the world does that mean from faith to faith?" And if you're a little bit confused, you're
32:37 in good company because if you look at theologians that have discussed it, you're going to find about four or five
32:42 different possible answers. But I'll spare you the detail. I'll just give you one answer that I think is one of the
32:47 good answers that's available. And it's also the translation that we heard this morning. From faith, faith from first to
32:56 last. In other words, everything related to salvation and righteousness can re be
33:02 received by us only through faith. We receive Jesus as Lord and Savior by
33:09 faith. We're forgiven by faith. We're justified and made righteous in the
33:16 sight of God by faith. We walk by faith. We live by faith. Everything in the
33:22 Christian life from start to finish is by faith. Faith through and through is what
33:28 characterizes the life of a believer. Then to conclude verse 17
33:37 after he says in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith then he quotes from the
33:44 Old Testament prophet Habach as it is written the righteous shall live by
33:50 faith. In the original language in the Greek that Paul wrote, this is the way it
33:57 appears. The righteous by faith shall live.
34:02 So once again, Bible scholars debate about what the meaning is. And I really
34:08 think there's two possible good meanings. But they ask, is by faith an
34:14 adjective that describes righteous? people that are righteous by faith. Or
34:22 is it an adverb that describes how the righteous people should live? They live by faith.
34:29 This is one translation that is preferred in many by many Bible translators. The people who are
34:35 righteous by faith, those who have been justified by faith, they are the ones
34:40 who are going to live. And that's true. Other Bible translators prefer the
34:47 righteous by faith they are going to live.
34:52 Also true if you're righteous you'll be living by faith. But if you're righteous
34:58 the reason you're righteous is because of faith. So me I don't necess
35:05 one or the other since I'm not translating the Bible. I think both are good. Both are possible in Paul's
35:12 meaning. We become righteous by faith and now we live by faith.
35:20 Martin Luther, the great reformer from Germany back before the reformation
35:25 began made a trip to Rome in the early 1500s and he recounted the following
35:31 experience. He said he went to a church there where many many pilgrims went. And
35:37 in this church there was supposedly a staircase that Jesus had climbed when he
35:44 went to see the governor Pilate. Now how that staircase got from Jerusalem to Rome, I don't have any idea, but that
35:51 was the story. That's what the people believed back then. So the pilgrims would get down on their knees and go up
35:58 the steps one step at a time on their knees saying a prescribed prayer on each
36:03 step. Then they'd come down and they'd do the same thing all over again. And they thought the more times they crawled
36:09 up on their knees saying these prayers, the more grace they would receive. And Martin Luther recounted that after
36:16 he had done that once and he started up the second time. He thought of this verse, the righteous
36:24 by faith will live. They thought, "What in the world am I doing crawling up
36:30 these steps on my knees trying to get God's grace?" We receive God's grace by
36:35 faith. We live by faith. So in the middle of his second time up the steps, he just got up, walked down. When he
36:43 returned to Germany, he began preaching justification by faith. We're made right
36:50 with God through faith, not through rituals, not through our works. And the
36:56 gospel, the power of God spread through the Reformation to countless numbers in
37:02 Europe. Earlier I I asked why would Paul be so
37:08 eager to preach the gospel in such a hostile situation where he suffered so
37:13 greatly when he told other people about Jesus. And we saw that he was eager to
37:19 preach the gospel because he was not ashamed of the gospel. He was not ashamed of the gospel because it has the
37:26 power of God to salvation to all who believe. And the gospel is a power of salvation
37:33 because in it God's righteousness is revealed.
37:39 About six months ago, I met with some Christian leaders from that remote area
37:45 of that country where I was talking about earlier where there had been such severe persecution,
37:51 including someone from this tribe of people where the gospel was spreading rapidly, but where many of the Christian
37:56 leaders had been imprisoned and tortured so badly.
38:02 Why had they continued to share the gospel under such difficult situations?
38:10 It's because they knew that the gospel was the power of God to salvation.
38:16 And only through the gospel can people be saved. And the leaders that I met with six
38:22 months ago said, "If you go back into this remote area today, and if you visit
38:28 some of the churches or the house groups and they call for testimonies,
38:35 there will be people in many of these groups that will stand up and say, "Two
38:41 years ago, I was persecuting Christians. Two years ago, I was torturing God's messengers.
38:49 But I have experienced the power of God. I have experienced his salvation.
38:58 Why continue sharing the gospel? Because it's only through the power of the
39:03 gospel that people can be saved. And even hardened people like those
39:08 persecutors came to faith in Christ.
39:14 In closing, just let me ask you a few questions. Have you experienced the
39:19 power of God? Have you experienced his salvation? Have
39:24 you experienced his grace and his forgiveness? Have you placed your faith in the Lord
39:31 Jesus Christ? Have you experienced God's power through
39:37 a changed life with different values and new priorities?
39:42 Have you experienced and received God's righteousness? Or are you trusting in your own
39:49 goodness? Your own religious activities are hoping that maybe somehow you'll have good luck when you stand before God
39:54 on judgment day. If you have not yet experienced God's power and his salvation and his
40:00 righteousness, you can today. You can come to him in faith. Confess your sins
40:05 to him. Ask him to forgive you. Ask him to take control of your life. At the end
40:11 of this service, there'll be some leaders of the church that will be up front if you would like to come. They will pray with you, talk with you,
40:16 counsel with you. Many of you have experienced God's salvation.
40:24 Question for you. Can you say with the Apostle Paul,
40:29 I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I am indebted to others all around me. I
40:38 am eager to proclaim the good news of Jesus. Let's pray.
40:46 Father, we want to thank you for your gospel. Thank you for what Jesus has
40:51 done for us. Thank you that you have made it way possible where we can receive your
40:58 forgiveness and your righteousness. Lord, I pray for those that are here this morning that as some have not yet
41:04 come to you in faith that they would take that step of faith today and respond to your grace.
41:12 And Father, for the many of us who have responded to you, help us to remember that we are indebted,
41:19 that we owe it to a lost world around us to share the gospel.
41:24 Because only when others hear the gospel can they receive your power, your
41:29 righteousness as they respond in faith. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
