{"id":19030,"date":"2018-09-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-23T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/righteous-by-faith\/"},"modified":"2022-02-01T17:10:36","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T23:10:36","slug":"righteous-by-faith","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/righteous-by-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Righteous by Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[90],"series_event":[518],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[482],"class_list":["post-19030","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-romans","series_event-guest-speaker","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-alex-garcia","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Righteous by Faith","sermon_date":"20180923","sermon_month":"09","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":"","sermon_slides":6086,"sermon_mp3":6090,"sermon_id":"92318101907","series_or_event":518,"service_type":[472],"speaker":482,"books_of_the_bible":90,"chapter_and_verse":"1:16-17","sermon_transcript":"Alex Garcia\r\n\r\nRighteous By Faith\r\n\r\nRomans 1:16-17\r\n\r\nGood morning.\u00a0\u00a0 I appreciate the opportunity to speak before you all again and our passage today is Romans 1:16-17.\u00a0 In 1980 an Australian man walked into a leather goods store in Los Angeles, California and he struck up a conversation with the store owner whose name was [can't understand word] and he began to tell the Australian, who happened to be an author, about the story that had happened decades earlier.\u00a0 It was a story of great, great mercy about how Mr. [same name] and his wife, Mrs. Mila [same name] and 1200 other Jews had been spared from the gas chamber by a very unlikely deliverer, by a very unlikely savior with a little s.\u00a0 The deliverer was a member of a Nazi party, a business man by the name of Oscar Schindler and the Australian was so mesmerized by this\u00a0 story of great mercy that he goes home and he writes a book named Shindler\u2019s Ark<\/em>, like Noah\u2019s ark.\u00a0 Stephen Spielberg comes along some\u00a0 years later and turns that into a movie names Schindler\u2019s List.<\/em>\r\n\r\nAnd in the account from the Schindler survivors there was one story about 300 ladies, 300 Schindler survivors that got mistaken routed to Auschwitz.\u00a0 They were supposed to be routed on the train to the death camp, Auschwitz, and they were terrified that they would never get out because no one ever got out of Auschwitz alive.\u00a0 The website Oskar Schindler [can't understand word], records statements from many Schindler Survivors.\r\n\r\nAnna Pearle who was one of the 300 ladies mistakenly routed to \u00a0Auschwitz later said this about the event.\u00a0 \u201cI knew something had gone terribly wrong, they cut our hair real short and sent us to the shower.\u00a0 Our only hope was Schindler would find us.\u00a0 Well, Schindler, who loved the Schindler [can't understand word], that\u2019s what they called them in German, the Schindler [can't understand word] , he called them his children.\u00a0 He loved them and so he did everything he could; he used all of his resources to protect and deliver his children.\u00a0 He bribed, he cajoled, he persuaded the Auschwitz authorities to let them out, he said I need them in my factory as workers because I\u2019m building things for the German war machine and I need them as my workers.\u00a0 And so finally he was able to persuade the Auschwitz authorities to release them.\u00a0 And they were loaded on a train and shipped out from Auschwitz to Shindler\u2019s factory where they would live.\r\n\r\nStella Moller Madesh [sp?] one of the 300 ladies who were saved, later said this in life: What I\u2019ll say is nothing poetic but I will repeat it to the end of my days, that the first time I was given life by my parents and the second by Auschwitz Schindler.\u00a0 In 1944 there were around 700 women transported from Glasgow, (that was the work camp where they were working) 300 of whom were on his list.\u00a0 He fought for us like a lion because they did not want to let us out of Auschwitz.\u00a0 He was offered better and healthier (she puts in quotes) \u201cmaterial\u201d from new transports, unlike us who had spent several years in the work camp.\u00a0 But he got us out, he saved us.\u00a0 When the ladies arrived at Schindler\u2019s factory they were cold and hungry and frail.\u00a0 And they were greeted by the silhouette of a man standing in the courtyard.\u00a0 It was Oscar Schindler and he said now you are finally with me, you\u2019re safe now, don\u2019t be afraid of anything, you have nothing to worry about.\r\n\r\nA male Schindler survivor by the name of Abraham Zuckerman put these events this way.\u00a0 \u201cCan\u00a0 you imagine what power it took for him to pull out from Auschwitz 300 people?\u00a0 At Auschwitz there was only way you got out we used to say, through the chimney.\u00a0 Understand?\u00a0 Nobody ever got out of Auschwitz but Schindler got out 300.\u00a0 Well, the Schindler Jews appreciated, the Schindler survivors appreciated the gift that Schindler gave them, the gift of physical deliverance, physical salvation from the Nazis.\u00a0 He could have taken his money from war profiteering and just slid out to Latin America or some other remote part of the world like many of the Nazis did.\u00a0 But he didn\u2019t, in an act of mercy he did everything he could to save the Schindler [can't understand word].\u00a0 And the Schindler Jews, the Schindler survivors loved him for it for the rest of their lives.\r\n\r\nNow God has given us a gift far more valuable than the gift that Schindler gave to his children.\u00a0 As amazing as that was God has given us a gift that is everlasting, that is eternal, and my question to you and to me today is do we value that gift at least as much as the Schindler survivors valued the gift that Schindler gave them\u2026 at least as much!\u00a0 Of course, we should value it much more because the gift that God has given us is eternal life and the sacrifice that God did is infinitely more than what Schindler did for his children.\r\n\r\nMy question is do we care about our salvation?\u00a0 Do we value it?\u00a0 Or have we become so accustomed to is, so used to it, we\u2019ve heard it so many times, and eehhh, it\u2019s kind of blas\u00e9<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0to it.\u00a0 Is that where we are, OR have we become so enamored\u2026 enamored by what we can see and touch and feel by our 401K\u2019s and our IRA\u2019s and our houses and out TV\u2019s and everything that we can see and touch?\u00a0 Is that more valuable?\u00a0 Are we more amazed by those delicious things than we are about our salvation?\u00a0 I think sometimes Satan creeps into the church and gets us accustomed to our salvation.\r\n\r\nNow this is just an analogy, right, it\u2019s just an illustration, and every analogy falls apart at some point, right?\u00a0 I mean, the Schindler survivors were innocent victims before the Nazis where we are guilty rebels, for that matter, all of humanity is guilty sinners before a holy righteous God.\u00a0 And Schindler certainly was not divine.\u00a0 But I make the illustration, I make the analogy because I want to make the point of how great our salvation is.\u00a0 This morning I want to take us back, I want to take us back to when we were born from above, when we were born into the family of God.\u00a0 And I want us to understand how great our salvation is, how God in His rich, RICH mercy saved us from the eternal condemnation of the Lake of Fire, of the torments of hell which is where we were headed, in a great act of mercy.\r\n\r\nAnd so our passage today is Romans 1:6-17 and these verses are actually the theme of the whole Book of Romans so they\u2019re just jam-packed with divine truths.\u00a0 And what we are going to see are five main principles.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to see that we\u2019re not supposed to be ashamed of the gospel.\u00a0 I\u2019m kind of embarrassed that I have to be told not to be ashamed of the gospel but that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to see here, don\u2019t be ashamed of the gospel.\r\n\r\nNumber two, don\u2019t be ashamed of it because \u201cit is the power of God.\u201d\u00a0 Number three, we\u2019re going to see that in salvation there are negative consequences of sin, because that\u2019s what we need to be saved from, our sin.\u00a0 There are negative consequences that are taken away, subtraction.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s the addition in salvation of these positive blessings, these positive benefits that we receive.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Number four, we\u2019re going to see the righteousness of God revealed by faith.\u00a0 And then finally we\u2019re going to see it\u2019s not just salvation that is accomplished by the power of God but he preserves our salvation.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t just save us but He preserves us in that saved condition by His power.\r\n\r\nNow this passage, Romans 1:16-17 is the passage that the Lord used to save Martin Luther 500 years ago.\u00a0 He was a dutiful Catholic Monk in Germany and Luther was troubled by the message of the church, the only church at that times was the Roman Catholic church, and he was troubled by their message of salvation, which was faith plus works\u2026 NOT faith alone, faith plus works.\u00a0 And the Lord used this passage to open Luther\u2019s eyes that salvation is by faith alone, or to use Luther\u2019s words, \u201cjustification by faith.\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019re justified, that\u2019s another way of saying we\u2019re made righteous, we\u2019re declared righteous by faith, faith alone!\u00a0 And we\u2019ll see that in a little bit.\r\n\r\nSo our first principle here is don\u2019t be ashamed of the gospel, chapter 1, verse 16, \u201cFor I am not ashamed of the gospel,\u201d Paul says. Well, what\u2019s the gospel?\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty straightforward, it\u2019s pretty simple, it\u2019s not complicated at all.\u00a0 The gospel is what Paul said to the Philippian jailor in Acts 16, \u201cBelieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. \u201c\u00a0 [Acts 16:31]\u00a0 And who\u2019s Christ?\u00a0 Christ is the one who died for our sins, was buried and was raised from the dead, 1 Corinthians 15.\u00a0 That\u2019s the gospel.\u00a0 It\u2019s not complicated; it\u2019s simple!\u00a0 And Paul knows that the world is hostile to the gospel; the world thinks that the gospel is stupid and that it\u2019s foolishness.\u00a0 In the words of 1 Corinthians 1:21.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 1:21, \u201cFor since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.\u201d]\r\n\r\nI like what C.E.B. Cranfield says about why the world sees the gospel as foolishness.\u00a0 Cranfield says, \u201cThe gospel is not impressive in the way the world has impressive things; it\u2019s not impressive as compared to the world\u2019s impressiveness.\u201d\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 I mean, God doesn\u2019t write in the sky \u201cBelieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and\u00a0 you will be saved\u201d with music and the trumpets of God and flashing lights.\u00a0 That\u2019s the impressiveness of the world; the world wants something flashy.\u00a0 That\u2019s not how God delivers the gospel.\u00a0 God delivers the gospel through human messengers, through words, spoken or written.\r\n\r\nSo God doesn\u2019t deliver the gospel in obvious might and majesty; instead He delivers it in Cranfield\u2019s words, in a failed way because He leaves, the gentleman that He is, He leaves people room to exercise faith, room to make a free choice of faith as opposed to forcing someone to believe.\u00a0 And so as a result the world is bound to look at the gospel as weakness and foolishness.\u00a0 So Paul knows of the constant temptation to be ashamed of the gospel, because the world is hostile to it.\u00a0 He knows that believers will be afraid of being ridiculed and persecuted for speaking the gospel.\u00a0 So Paul addresses this head-on.\u00a0 He says okay, let\u2019s talk about that!\r\n\r\nSo he says in the passage, \u201cFor I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation.\u201d\u00a0 You see what he just did?\u00a0 He\u2019s making a contrast here, he\u2019s saying on the one hand there\u2019s the fear of being persecuted and ridiculed for speaking the gospel and on the other hand there is the power of God, and power is a great cure for fear. \u00a0Right?\u00a0 What was the cure for the Schindler 300, they were huddling there in Auschwitz, the ladies?\u00a0 The power of Schindler to show up with his cash and get them out of Auschwitz.\u00a0 Power is a great cure for fear.\r\n\r\nAnd so Paul says he\u2019s snot relying on human power, he\u2019s relying on the absolute infinite power of God.\u00a0 He says the reason I don\u2019t give in to the temptation to be ashamed, to cower over here in the corner when I get persecuted or I get ridiculed with the gospel, the reason I don\u2019t do that is because of the power of God.\u00a0 When we think of the gospel we often think of the grace of God as we should. Ephesians 2:8-9, right.\u00a0 [Ephesians 2:8-9, \u201cFor by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is<\/em> the gift of God; [9] not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.\u201d]\r\n\r\nWe\u2019re saved by His grace, we\u2019re not saved by giving money to charity, we\u2019re not saved by doing our best or by attending a church.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like the conversation that the mom had with her four year old daughter where she is talking to her about salvation and what do you have to do to be saved?\u00a0 What does someone do to be saved?\u00a0 And the little girls says well, momma, they have to go to our church every Wednesday night and every Sunday.\u00a0 And the mom says no one gets saved by going to our church.\u00a0 And so the little girl looks up to mommy and she says well mommy, we\u2019d better find another church then.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 It\u2019s not like that.\u00a0 Salvation is by grace, it\u2019s a free gift from God.\r\n\r\nBut in addition to grace being part of the salvation package there\u2019s another aspect of God that\u2019s involved, and that\u2019s the power of God, the absolute power of God.\u00a0 Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 1:18 where he says, \u201cFor the Word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it\u2019s the power of God.\u201d\u00a0 So to the culture the gospel is stupid, it\u2019s foolishness, it\u2019s a fairy tale for the weak minded.\u00a0 But to those who are being saved the gospel is the absolute power of God.\u00a0 And there\u2019s always been power, infinite power in God\u2019s word, even from the beginning. In Genesis 1, when God created the heavens and the earth He did it with a word.\u00a0 That\u2019s power.\u00a0 \u201cLet there be light\u201d and boom, there was light.\u00a0 \u201cLet there be an expanse between the waters from above and below,\u201d in other words, let there be a sky and there was a sky.\u00a0 Let there be animal life\u2026 boom.!\u00a0 Let there be plant life\u2026 boom!\u00a0 He just made these things with a word.\u00a0 That\u2019s POWER!\r\n\r\nAnd so we\u2019re tired into that power, we are connected to that power through salvation, that infinite power.\u00a0 And so in our passage we see, \u201cFor I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation,\u201d what\u2019s the salvation that Paul\u2019s talking about?\u00a0 Is it a salvation for money problems?\u00a0 From health problems?\u00a0 From family problems?\u00a0 NO, that\u2019s what the prosperity gospel is out there selling, which is no gospel at all.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not what Paul is talking about.\u00a0 Paul is talking about salvation, deliverance from the horror that will come in the day of the Lord.\u00a0 That\u2019s the future day where Jesus settles accounts.\u00a0 That\u2019s the future day of reckoning.\u00a0 The one who is saved in the day of the Lord is the one who is delivered from the wrath of God which is executed by the God-Man, Jesus.\r\n\r\nWe often don\u2019t hear the words wrath and Jesus in the same sentence. Right?\u00a0 Because the world wants to think of Jesus as the sweet baby cuddling Jesus in the manger.\u00a0 And it\u2019s true that Jesus came meek and mild, as the lamb to be slaughtered for the world.\u00a0 That is true.\u00a0 But when He comes again He won\u2019t come as a lamb; He\u2019ll come as a lion, as the warrior king who slaughters His enemies to such a degree that in Revelation 14 it\u2019s described that the blood reaches up to the bridal of the horse.\u00a0 Or in Revelation 20 it is that Jesus, the One who was in the manger who will sit on the Great White Throne Judgment and cast His enemies, who are unbelievers, into the Lake of Fire for torments forever.\u00a0 That\u2019s the Jesus that we\u2019re talking about, the Lamb and the Lion.\r\n\r\nAnd the salvation that Paul is referring to here in Romans 1:16 is salvation from that wrath, from that wrath that will be inflicted by Jesus.\u00a0 And Paul lays this out a few chapters later in Romans 5:9-10 where he says, \u201cMuch more than having now been justified\u201d that\u2019s just another way of saying having now been declared righteous, \u201cMuch more than having now been justified by His blood we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019re justified by Jesus\u2019 blood and we\u2019re saved from the wrath of God through Jesus, that\u2019s the \u201cHim\u201d here in verse 9.\r\n\r\nVerse 10, \u201cIf while we were enemies\u2026\u201d enemies, that\u2019s you, that\u2019s me, enemies of God.\u00a0 That was our condition before we were saved.\u00a0 It\u2019s not very flattering.\u00a0 Do you look at yourself in the mirror and you say \u201cenemy of God!\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t like that, but that\u2019s what the Scripture calls me and you before we were saved.\u00a0 \u201cFor if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by His life,\u201d by Jesus\u2019 life.\u00a0 The wrath of God in verse 9 is the lake of fire.\u00a0 It\u2019s hell, where there\u2019s weeping and gnashing of teeth as Jesus describes in Matthew 8.\r\n\r\nJesus put it this way in John 3:36, \u201cHe who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.\u201d\u00a0 Now many in Christianity are embarrassed today about hell.\u00a0 They\u2019re ashamed about that part of the gospel message and I submit that that is part of the gospel message, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you\u2019re going to heaven, don\u2019t believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and my friend, you\u2019re going to hell.\u00a0 And so many in Christianity today are embarrassed by the idea of hell even though it\u2019s in the Scriptures.\u00a0 They\u2019re afraid that they\u2019re going to be called a bigot or intolerant if they say to their Muslim friend or their atheist friend or their Hindu friend hey man, I love you, but if you don\u2019t believe in Christ you\u2019re going to hell; I don\u2019t want you to go to hell, I want\u00a0 you to be in heaven.\u00a0 And so many Christians are like whooo, whooo, whooo, whooo, I\u2019m not going to say that?\u00a0 Somebody is going to call me a bigot for talking like that.\r\n\r\nWell, that\u2019s how the Bible talks.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying we should be jerks for Jesus, I\u2019m not saying that we should present the gospel in an offensive way.\u00a0 We should present it in love but we should be honest about it, we should be truthful about the consequences of belief AND the consequences of unbelief.\u00a0 Hell is real and hell is horrible and personally I wish there was no hell.\u00a0 I wish there was no hell!\u00a0 I\u2019ve given the gospel to my unbelieving friends and they\u2019ve ehh, and so it hurts me to know that they\u2019re headed to hell but I don\u2019t get to make that call, whether there\u2019s a hell or not.\u00a0 God has established it as a punishment, the eternal punishment for His enemies.\u00a0 And His enemies are those who have rejected His Son.\u00a0 And so I declare it because the Scripture declares it. God warns us that hell does exist and is the place of eternal punishment and torment for those who refuse to believe in His Son.\r\n\r\nSo our salvation is so precious, it\u2019s so precious, I ask again, do we value it?\u00a0 Do you value it!\u00a0 Do I value it?\u00a0 Or has our comfort and ease become so delicious to us that we\u2019re blas\u00e9 about our salvation, that salvation is kind of eeehhh ho-hum.\u00a0 Other Christians around the world are being beheaded for their salvation, as Paul was beheaded for his, for the gospel.\u00a0 I think sometimes we get too casual about our salvation.\r\n\r\nNow we can\u2019t understand how great our salvation is if we don\u2019t understand our need.\u00a0 Right. The Schindler 300 understood their need for deliverance; the Schindler 300 who were mistakenly routed to Auschwitz, they had no question in their mind that they had a need to get out, to be delivered.\u00a0 They knew they had to get out.\u00a0 Well, our need is much greater than theirs, for that matter, all of humanity\u2019s need, for eternal salvation, is much greater than theirs.\r\n\r\nNow the world is not going to tell people about their need for eternal salvation, right?\u00a0 But the Bible does, and what does it say?\u00a0 It says that we were the enemies of God subject to His wrath.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because of our sin; it\u2019s our sin that puts us in this terrible condition and we have three areas of sin where we are condemned: Adam\u2019s original sin, when Adam sinned we sinned; his sin is imputed to us and that\u2019s laid out in Romans 5:12.\u00a0 Many say hey, hey, hey, hey,\u00a0 hey, no, no, no.\u00a0 No no God, that\u2019s not fair.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t there when he sinned, it\u2019s not fair for me to be responsible for his sin.\r\n\r\nWell, that fairness argument goes out the window with the second reason why we\u2019re condemned because of our sin, that\u2019s our own personal sins that we commit every day, either in thought or in deed.\u00a0 And so we do our own sin so we can\u2019t get high and mighty and say God, that\u2019s not fair that you\u2019re going to impute Adam\u2019s original sin to me. We do our own sins, Romans 3:23, because \u201call have sinned and fall short. That\u2019s the glory of God.\u00a0 And then number three, the third reason of sin that condemns us is our sin nature, Romans 8:12-13.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to teach a baby to say no to mamma, right?\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason why we call them the terrible twos; and when a two year old says no to mamma we don\u2019t say who taught you to say no; we expect it, that\u2019s why we call them the terrible twos, we expect it, it\u2019s natural, now that we\u2019re infected by sin, since the fall in Genesis 3.\r\n\r\nAnd so we\u2019re condemned by sin for three reasons; (1) because Adam\u2019s original sin is imputed to us.\u00a0 (2) because we do our own personal sins, and (3) because of our sin nature.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s a penalty for that, there\u2019s a penalty for sin; it\u2019s death, judgment and wrath.\u00a0 And you may be saying to yourself well wait a second, is there any good news that you have for us today Garcia?\u00a0 I\u2019ll get to the good news in a minute but the penalty for sin is death, judgment and wrath.\u00a0 Romans 6:23 says, \u201cthe wages of sin is death,\u201d that\u2019s spiritual death AND physical death.\u00a0 Spiritual death was right there in the beginning, right there in Genesis.\u00a0 In Genesis 2 God said, \u201cIn the day that you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will die.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s Genesis 2.\r\n\r\nGenesis 3, Adam and Eve sinned, He didn\u2019t die for a thousand years so did God make a mistake, I means, was He just off by a thousand years?\u00a0 No, of course not, He\u2019s perfect in all things.\u00a0 Adam died instantly and Eve died instantly spiritually; that\u2019s why the first thing they did is they went and covered themselves up; they got some fig leaves and covered themselves up because Genesis 2 they were naked and not ashamed.\u00a0 Genesis 3, the first thing they did was cover themselves up and then hide in the trees when God came into the garden.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because they were spiritually dead, they were separated from God spiritually; physically alive but spiritually dead.\r\n\r\nAnd then that led ultimately to their physical death.\u00a0 And so their spiritual death and physical death that is the penalty of sin.\u00a0 Everybody in this room in a hundred years everybody is going to be dead; everybody is going to be dead in this room in a hundred years.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to be gone; every human being dies and frankly that\u2019s what proves the Scripture.\u00a0 That\u2019s what proves that \u201cthe wags of sin is death.\u201d\u00a0 So the penalty of sin---death!\u00a0 Number 1.\r\n\r\nNumber 2, it\u2019s the judgment of God.\u00a0 Sin puts people under God\u2019s judgment, John 3:18.\u00a0 A righteous holy God can\u2019t just say eeehh, you know what, I\u2019m not going to worry about [can't understand word], because I like you all and I\u2019m just going to blow off your sin.\u00a0 God can\u2019t do that because He\u2019s righteous and holy.\u00a0 We can\u2019t think of God in terms of human standards, we have to think of Him as the Bible describes Him, as the Scripture describes Him, which is the righteous judge, Psalm 7:11.\r\n\r\nAnd finally, the penalty for sin is wrath, the wrath of God.\u00a0 Our sin puts us under His wrath, Romans 5:9 that we saw earlier.\u00a0 We deserve to be cast into hell with the other rebels; when I say \u201cthe other rebels\u201d I mean Satan and his fallen angels.\u00a0 They\u2019re all rebels; we\u2019re rebels like the rest of them.\u00a0 But then God, in His rich, rich mercy offers us deliverance.\u00a0 He sends the train to Auschwitz and He says won\u2019t you come in, won\u2019t\u00a0 you accept My salvation. What did our passage say, \u201cFor I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation,\u201d and so there are negative consequences of sin that God removes I salvation.\u00a0 We\u2019re not subject to those any more, AND He gives us positive blessings in salvation.\u00a0 The negative that\u2019s removed is the wrath of God; we\u2019re not subject to that any more. \u00a0We\u2019re not subject to the condemnation of judgment of God.\r\n\r\nNumber two, we\u2019re not subject to spiritual death; we\u2019re delivered from spiritual death.\u00a0 And then number four, He even delivers us from physical death.\u00a0 Well how does that work?\u00a0 Two minutes ago I said we\u2019re all going to die.\u00a0 We will, but God, in His rich mercy undoes our physical death, like taking this flesh and these bones, which not long from now will be in the ground as dust, and reconstituting them so they\u2019re fit for heaven.\u00a0 In other words, He resurrects us, gives us a resurrection body.\u00a0 So those are the negative things that are the consequences of sin that God removes, the subtraction.\r\n\r\nThe addition are the positive things, the positive blessing, the benefits that He gives us: eternal life, He gives us His righteousness as we\u2019ll see in Romans 1:17, He will glorify us, Romans 8:30, and then He adopts us into His heavenly family.\u00a0 So Paul\u2019s point is that the gospel is the power of God that breaks into this fallen world to save God\u2019s enemies from their fallen state, from their sinful state of condemnation.\r\n\r\nAnd then we get to the end of the verse in Romans 1:16, it\u2019s salvation \u201cto everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0As you all know the Jews are the chosen race, God has chosen them for a special purpose.\u00a0 He\u2019s chosen them to be the pipeline through which He blesses all of humanity.\u00a0 It\u2019s not an accident that the author of all 66 books of the Bible were Jews, except Luke and maybe the author of Job.\u00a0 It\u2019s not an accident that all of the apostles of Jesus (apostle means sent one) it\u2019s not an accident that all the apostles were Jews.\u00a0 It\u2019s not an accident that the Savior of the world is a Jew, Jesus.\u00a0 It\u2019s not an accident that the one who will bring worldwide prosperity, the only one who can, and worldwide peace, the only one who can, in the millennium is a Jew, Jesus of Nazareth.\u00a0 It\u2019s not an accident that Jesus will rule the world from the city of the Jews, Jerusalem, during the thousand year reign.\r\n\r\nSo the Jews have priority in this matter.\u00a0 Now although the Jews, since the time of Christ mostly have rejected Messiah they\u2019re still chosen because the gifts and the calling are irrevocable, Romans 11.\u00a0 One day they will believe but in their status as chosen they have priority so\u00a0 the gospel was given to them first.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s modus operandi, his procedure, what he would do every time he\u2019d go into a new city in his missionary journey, where would he go first?\u00a0 The synagogue and then he\u2019d go to the Gentiles.\u00a0 Paul\u2019s point is the gospel is available to anyone who is willing to believe.\u00a0 Now in salvation we are utterly helpless; we\u2019re helpless before our righteous God.\u00a0 Like the Schindler 300 were helpless in Auschwitz, they needed someone to come in and save them, we are helpless.\u00a0 Again, as I say, that illustration is not perfect because the Schindler survivors were innocent victims before the Nazi\u2019s where we\u2019re, and all of humanity for that matter, sinful rebels before God.\r\n\r\nBecause we\u2019re sinful the Bible describes us as helpless and ungodly, Romans 5:6, \u201cFor while we were still helpless at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s not very flattering is it?\u00a0 Helpless, enemies, ungodly, that\u2019s how I\u2019m described, that\u2019s how you\u2019re described in the Scripture.\u00a0 Our righteousness are tainted, they\u2019re infected, everything about us is infected with this virus called sin.\u00a0 And so even our righteousness is disgusting before God.\u00a0 What did the prophet Isaiah say in Isaiah 64:6, \u201cFor all of us have become like one who is unclean and our righteous deeds are like filthy garments.\u201d\u00a0 He Hebrew there is [sounds like: beged-edeem]\u00a0 which means menstruation garment.\u00a0 That\u2019s how God views our righteous deeds; he views them as a filthy garment and so we\u2019re helpless before Him.\r\n\r\nWhen you add this up, when you add up our personal sins, when you add up Adam\u2019s original sin being imputed to us, when you add up our sin nature, we get total depravity, we get the doctrine of total depravity.\u00a0 Now total depravity doesn\u2019t mean that we\u2019re as wicked as we potentially could be; it doesn\u2019t mean that every human being is murdering everybody else.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean that your neighbor sitting right next to you\u2026 you don\u2019t need to worry that he\u2019s going to slide his hand in your pocket and try and grab your wallet.\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 I mean, total depravity doesn\u2019t mean that we\u2019re as bad as we potentially can be.\u00a0 It means that in relationship to a perfect holy God we can\u2019t do anything to please Him, we can\u2019t do anything to please Him!\u00a0 Now the world they say come on, we\u2019re pretty good.\u00a0 The world flatly rejects this idea of total depravity.\r\n\r\nI like the way Dwight Pentecost describes it; he says, \u201cWe are the heirs of generations of the teachings of evolution which sees man in an ever sinning spiral rising higher and higher from the depth from which he has sprung until finally he will reach the stars.\u00a0 So widely accepted is that concept that we have come somehow to feel that there is so much good in the worst of us that man is not so bad off after all.\u00a0 Well, as Pentecost points out in his book and that the Scripture points out, yeah we are, the reality is that in relation to a perfect holy righteous God we are sinful broken and helpless and we need God to step in for us.\r\n\r\nVerse 17, \u201cFor in it,\u201d the \u201cit\u201d here is the gospel, \u201cfor in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, \u201cbut the righteous man shall live by faith.\u201d\u00a0 This verse is just jam packed with divine truths.\u00a0 Remember what Paul said in verse 16 where he said that the gospel is the power of God to salvation.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Why is the gospel of God the power of God for salvation?\u00a0 It\u2019s because in the gospel God reveals His righteousness.\u00a0 He shows it, He exhibits it, He shows His righteousness in the gospel and that\u2019s our fourth point here.\r\n\r\nThe phrase, \u201cthe righteousness of God\u201d really means two things: it means who God is and what He does.\u00a0 Who is God?\u00a0 He\u2019s the only one who\u2019s righteous; all have sinned and fallen short\u00a0 of the glory of God, Romans 3.\u00a0 So God\u2019s the only one who\u2019s righteous.\u00a0 That\u2019s His attribute that\u2019s being described there, His characteristic, He is righteous. But it\u2019s not just about who He is, it\u2019s what He does.\u00a0 The righteous one declares the unrighteousness as righteous, so He is righteous and then He does something He declares us, He gives us a new status, a new legal status in heaven.\u00a0 I am no longer the enemy of God, I become righteous; He declares me as righteous.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like a Governor who pardons a criminal; the criminal committed the crime, the criminal is the enemy of the state, the criminal is subject to the punishment of the state, but the governor comes in and says I\u2019m going to pardon you, you now have a new legal status, you\u2019re no longer the enemy of the state,\u00a0 you\u2019re no longer under the punishment of the state.\u00a0 You\u2019re pardoned now.\r\n\r\nLike every other analogy I say it\u2019s not perfect because what\u2019s happening here in salvation is it\u2019s true, our sins are forgiven, God doesn\u2019t remember our sins any more, that\u2019s the negative that\u2019s removed but He\u2019s doing more than a governor can do, right.\u00a0 The governor just says all right, you\u2019re forgiven.\u00a0 Here God says you\u2019re forgiven plus, AND I\u2019m going to give you these things; I am going to make\u00a0 you, I\u2019m going to declare you righteous, I\u2019m going to give you My righteousness.\u00a0 And so the righteousness of God is who God is and what He does.\r\n\r\nNotice this word\u00a0 revealed, \u201cfor in it the righteousness of God is revealed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The verb here is in the present tense, it\u2019s happening right now.\u00a0 He\u2019s exhibiting His righteousness right now.\u00a0 How does He do that?\u00a0 He sends someone to preach the gospel.\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 A mom to give the gospel to her child.\u00a0 A worker to give the gospel to a co-worker.\u00a0 A preacher to preach the gospel.\u00a0 Take Billy Graham for example, he preaches the gospel all around the world, I used to tell this funny story where he went to this little town in South Carolina and he was going to preach in the evening and it\u2019s the middle of the day and he\u2019s looking for a post office and he goes to a little boy he sees in the street and he asks the little boy for the directions to the post office.\u00a0 The little boy gives him directions to the post office and Billy Graham says well thank you son, I want you to know that I\u2019m going to be preaching tonight and I\u2019m going to be giving people directions of how to heaven, I\u2019m going to be telling them how to get to heaven, and you\u2019re invited.\u00a0 So the little boy looks up at Mr. Graham and he says well, no thank you sir, you don\u2019t even know how to get to the post office.\u00a0 [Laughter]\r\n\r\nThe point is God uses human messengers to reveal His righteousness.\u00a0 You see, God\u2019s not just out there detached from His creation in heaven.\u00a0 No, He engages Himself intimately in His creation and He exhibits or reveals His righteousness through spoken by human messengers.\r\n\r\nAnd then we get to the human side of salvation.\u00a0 Faith!\u00a0 You see that in the language there, \u201cFor in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s a curious phrase, \u201cfrom faith to faith.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s saying, to use Jim\u2019s words, the whole enchilada is about faith, it\u2019s all faith.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 Don\u2019t show up with your good works because God says I don\u2019t want them because they\u2019re as filthy rags before Me.\u00a0 It\u2019s all FAITH!.\u00a0 That\u2019s the means by which God has chosen to save us.\r\n\r\nNow one thing I should point out is the power is not in the faith the power is in the God who does the saving.\u00a0 The power is in God who saves us; it\u2019s not the faith that technically saves us, we need to believe, we are required to have faith, but faith is just a means that God has chosen, the power is in God who does the saving.\u00a0 So when I trust in Christ, when I rely on Christ for the forgiveness of my sins, for my access to heaven, for my access to the Father, I\u2019m putting all the glory on Him, all the praise on Him because when I don\u2019t have any works, when I don\u2019t bring my works to the conversation, to the transaction, and I say Father, it\u2019s all\u2026 I rely on Christ for my salvation, now I don\u2019t get any of the glory.\u00a0 God has chosen a means by which He gets all the glory, He gets all the praise.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because He did it all.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t do anything and so none of the glory goes to us.\u00a0 In that act of faith I can\u2019t very well say ha-ha, look at me, I relied on Him. Well, that doesn\u2019t make any sense, right?\u00a0 How can I be bragging if I put all my faith on Christ.\r\n\r\nNow the unbelieving world would say look, I\u2019m not going to worship a God who\u2019s an egomaniac.\u00a0 Have you ever heard that argument?\u00a0 The unbelieving world says God needs glory, He\u2019s got the bighead; He\u2019s an egomaniac.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way the argument from the atheist goes.\u00a0 What\u2019s fundamentally missing from that argument is an understanding of who God is.\u00a0 There\u2019s only one who is holy; there is only one who is righteous.\u00a0 See, what that argument means, what that argument is saying is putting God on an equal par with humanity; there\u2019s only one who\u2019s holy, there\u2019s only one who\u2019s righteous, and that\u2019s God, and so God demands glory.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Out of an interest of honesty because there\u2019s no one like Him.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the angels declare in Isaiah 6, \u201cHoly, Holy, Holy,\u201d because He is utterly other, and so out of an interest of honesty, of truth, He demands glory because there\u2019s no one else worthy.\u00a0 So in faith we put all the glory on God and on Christ.\r\n\r\nThen at the end of the verse you see this quote from the Old Testament.\u00a0 At the end of the verse Paul says, \u201cAs it is written, the righteous man shall live by faith.\u201d\u00a0 This statement is a quote that the Lord gave to the prophet, a statement that the Lord made to the prophet Habakkuk in Habakkuk 2:4.\u00a0 [Habakkuk 2:4, \u201cBehold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.\u201d\u00a0 And there Habakkuk was very concerned because the Lord had just told him look, the Babylonian army is coming and Israel is going to be destroyed by the Babylonians.\u00a0 So Habakkuk is very concerned and the Lord reassures Habakkuk and He says these words to Habakkuk. What\u2019s the Lord is saying is Habakkuk, look, some are righteous, some are righteous and they will be delivered from the wrath of the Babylonians because of their faith in me.\u201d\r\n\r\nSo Habakkuk 2 is dealing with deliverance or salvation, physical deliverance, physical salvation from the wrath of the Babylonian army.\u00a0 In Romans 1:17, our passage this morning, Paul unpacks this a little more, unpacks what\u2019s going on here a little more.\u00a0 Paul reads the prophet\u2019s words in light of the power of the gospel.\u00a0 So Paul tells us that the phrase, \u201cthe righteous man shall live by faith\u201d doesn\u2019t just mean physical deliverance of physical salvation from the wrath of the Babylonian army; it also means eternal deliverance, eternal salvation from the wrath of God that is to come.\r\n\r\nPaul\u2019s point is that the people who have been declared righteous by God because of their faith, it\u2019s those who are going to live.\u00a0 In other words, it\u2019s those who are going to be saved and salvation really involves three things for the believer.\u00a0 Salvation is immediate deliverance, number one from the judgment of God; that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been talking about, immediate deliverance from the wrath of God.\r\n\r\nNumber two, it\u2019s ongoing deliverance from the power of sin to enslave us in our daily choices.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have to submit to sin anymore because we\u2019ve been liberated, Romans 6:12-14.\u00a0 And then finally, our salvation from sin is that there will be a future deliverance from the presence of sin in heaven; there won\u2019t be any sin in heaven.\u00a0 While this verse, Romans 1:17, this is the verse that God used to save Martin Luther 500 years ago.\u00a0\u00a0 Martin Luther was this dutiful Catholic monk; he was a Catholic monk in Germany and the idea of the righteousness of God just scared Luther to no end.\u00a0 He was terrified by the righteousness of God.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what he said 500 years ago.\r\n\r\n\u201cMy situation was that, although an impeccable monk,\u201d Luther said, \u201cI stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him<\/u>.\u2026Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith<\/u>.\u2026whereas before the \u2018justice of God\u2019\u201d when he says \u201cjustice of God\u201d he means the righteousness of God, same thing, \u201cwhereas before the \u201cjustice of God\u201d had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0[Martin Luther quoted in Roland H. Bainton\u2019s Here I Stand<\/em>, page 51.]\r\n\r\nThis is the doctrine of justification by faith; we are justified (or declared righteous) by faith in an instant of time, in a moment of faith in Christ where God imputes His righteousness, He transfers His righteousness to us.\u00a0 He declares us as righteous.\u00a0 This is where Luther and the Roman Catholic Church parted ways and vehemently disagreed.\u00a0 They disagreed on this concept of justification by faith.\u00a0 The Roman Catholic Church, at the Council of Trent, which was their response to the Reformation, condemned the doctrine of justification by faith alone.\u00a0 The Council of Trent was made up of Catholic clergy and they said no, no, no, no, justification doesn\u2019t happen in an instant of time, it happens gradually over someone\u2019s life; it\u2019s a lifelong process they said, where a person becomes righteous over time by a combination of faith plus works, not by faith alone.\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s what they said at the Council of Trent, \u201c\u201cIf any one shall say, that by faith alone <\/u>the impious [i.e., the sinner] is justified;\u201d declared righteous, same thing, \u201cso as to mean that nothing else is required<\/u> to co-operate in order unto the obtaining the grace of justification\u2026 ; let him be anathema<\/u> [i.e., accursed].\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [T.A. Buckley: The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent<\/em>, pg. 46]\r\n\r\nThey\u2019re saying no, no, no, no, you can\u2019t say that it\u2019s faith alone.\u00a0 That\u2019s their point there.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to have more, is what they\u2019re saying.\u00a0 And they unpack this a little more in Canon 34, where they say, \u201cCanon XXXIV.\u00a0 \u201cIf any one shall say, that the justice received is not preserved, and also increased in the sight of God through good works<\/u>; but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of justification received, but not a cause of the increase thereof; let him be anathema<\/u>.\u201d \u00a0Let him be accursed.\u00a0 They\u2019re saying you\u2019re not declared righteous, you\u2019re not made righteous by God in an instant of faith.\u00a0 They\u2019re saying you need God to declare you as righteous and\u00a0 you need good works as part of it, you need both, you need faith and good works and then through that you become righteous.\r\n\r\nWell, praise God, that through Martin Luther, these views from the Council of Trent, were shown as false because the Scripture makes clear that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 And praise God that Martin Luther, that God through Martin Luther unpacked the doctrine of justification by faith for us.\r\n\r\nThe final thing that I\u2019d like to talk about today is eternal security.\u00a0 Eternal security is something that is so important to us and it\u2019s laid out in the Scripture, the logical result of the Council of Trent\u2019s position is that you can\u2019t know that you\u2019re saved.\u00a0 That\u2019s what they say here in chapter 9 of the Council of Trent: \u201c\u201c. . . no one can know with a certainty of faith, which cannot be subject to mistake<\/u>, that he has obtained the grace of God.\u201d\u00a0 [T.A. Buckley: The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent<\/em>, pg. 36.]\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s the logical result of a position of the only way you\u2019re saved is faith plus works; that\u2019s a false position.\u00a0 That\u2019s their position, you need faith plus works.\u00a0 Well, the logical result of that is you can\u2019t know for sure if you\u2019re ever saved and that\u2019s what they say clearly in chapter 9 here of the Council of Trent.\u00a0 You can\u2019t know.\r\n\r\nWell, let me be crystal clear on this: the Bible makes absolutely certain clear that you can know if you\u2019re saved because salvation is NOT our power, it\u2019s God\u2019s power, He does it all.\u00a0 If it were our power then I\u2019d agree with you, I\u2019d say I don\u2019t know, I don\u2019t know, how many good works are enough, is it 1005 or 1007, how many good works are enough?\u00a0 So our salvation is protected by God\u2019s power.\u00a0 He preserves our salvation, He doesn\u2019t just save us by his power but He preserves our salvation by His power.\r\n\r\nAnd the Apostle Peter lays this out for us in 1 Peter where he says, \u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy\u201d that\u2019s a word that just runs through the Scripture, \u201cmercy.\u201d\u00a0 Well, I don\u2019t need no mercy if I\u2019ve got good works, because then I can get the glory.\u00a0 And God says no, I save through My mercy because I, as God, do it all!\u00a0 So, \u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope protected by the power of God through faith for his salvation to be revealed in the last time.\u201d\r\n\r\nOur salvation is not revealed right now.\u00a0 No one sees it; you can\u2019t touch it and feel it.\u00a0 But in the last time, in the day of the Lord, when His wrath is revealed on His enemies and we are not there that\u2019s when this salvation is revealed.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Peter is talking about, it\u2019s revealed in the last times when there is the day of the Lord, the day where the Lord settles accounts.\u00a0 But the believer\u2019s salvation is actually doubly secure because Jesus promised that no one could snatch\u00a0 us out of His hand or the Father\u2019s hand in John 10:28-29.\u00a0 [John 10:28-29, \u201cand I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.\u00a0 [29] \u201cMy Father, who has given them<\/em> to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them<\/em> out of the Father\u2019s hand.\u201d]\r\n\r\nI love how the Apostle Paul describes our eternal security, how we can know in fact that we are saved.\u00a0 He does that in Romans 8:38-39, where he says: \u201cFor I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,\u00a0 [39] nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God,\u201d \u201cthe love of God,\u201d not the wrath of God, \u201cthe love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd so I ask again, do you care about your salvation?\u00a0 Do you value it?\u00a0 Do I?\u00a0 Have we become so enamored by what we can see and touch and feel that our salvation is eehh, it\u2019s interesting, yeah.\u00a0 Do we value it at least as much as those Shindler survivors valued the gift of physical salvation, physical deliverance that Shindler gave them?\u00a0 We should value our salvation much more, right, because ours is eternal, it\u2019s eternal everlasting salvation.\u00a0 If our attitude is that salvation is really no big deal then I submit we should confess that to God; we should confess that and we should ask Him to humble us.\u00a0 We should ask Him to remind us of the great, great mercy that He has given us, undeserved mercy.\u00a0 And we should ask Him to challenge us to appreciate the salvation, give us an attitude of gratitude.\r\n\r\nNow if there\u2019s anybody here today who\u2019s without Christ, without hope and without eternal life we want you to know that Jesus died for you, that Jesus longs for you to come to Him.\u00a0 The Father sacrificed His only begotten Son, Jesus of Nazareth, who is the God-man, for YOU, and if you trust Him, if you believe and rely on Him for your access to the Father, you believe on Him, He is the one who died for your sins, He was buried and was raised from the dead, in an instant of time God declares you as righteous and you become the daughter or the son of God; you become the child of God and you go from being His enemy subject to wrath, the wrath that is to come, subject to the eternal lake of fire, you go from being His enemy to being His child. And so we urge you to do that in an instant of time; it just takes a prayer, a second in your mind, and you\u2019re transformed from being the enemy of God to being His child.\r\n\r\nFather, we thank\u00a0 You for our time together this morning and we ask that\u00a0 You would challenge us by these principles.\u00a0 We thank You for\u00a0 Your mercy and we thank You for Your grace and we thank\u00a0 You for the clarity of Your word, and we thank You for what You revealed to Martin Luther 500 years ago and we praise You for it.\u00a0 We ask that You humble us, and remind us that You love us and that You are in control and we\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 In Jesus name we pray, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t