Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina.

And then we're gonna begin back towards the first of the chapter. For God's chosen people, we call them that. And, of course, Paul was the ambassador, you would say, as God began to reveal the gospel to Paul that Christ didn't just die for the Jewish nation. He died for all of us, Jew and Gentile.

And if you agree with that, say amen. This verse, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, does not mean that, in a sense, that the Jewish nation is more important than any other person. It just means chronologically that the gospel was preached to the Jew first. But now it's also to the Greek.

In other words, when he died, there might have been some things they didn't understand fully about the gospel, but through the canon of scripture, we don't have that excuse. We can fully understand that Jesus died for all. And so I want you to understand that. Let's pray, and as we dig in, hope this will be a blessing to you. Lord, we love you. Pray that you'd help us this year and today. And thank you for our folks that have made it. Thank you for, Lord, those of the choir that could make it here this morning.

Thank you. They did such a good job. Thank you for these young men from Pensacola, this precious couple traveling with them. Lord, I pray you continue to bless them. I know they had a short holiday and had to get right on the road.

And I know that's not always the funnest thing, leaving family to come and do things like this before the school year starts for them. So, Lord, I pray you'd bless them. And in the middle of all this, as they minister to us, may they be ministered unto. And, Lord, we love you. And, Lord, I know that you are in full support of us promoting the gospel. So, Lord, I pray you'd help us. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Something interesting here, in verse 16, Paul says this, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of what? Now, look at verse 1 of the passage.

And as we begin the book of Romans, chronologically, we believe this is the first book he wrote. Look at verse 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God.

And now this is the word Theos in the Greek. And this obviously represents the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. So, the Bible says here that Paul was separated under the gospel of God, and then he begins to explain it. And then in verse 16, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. You see, Christ is the center of the gospel. But Christ is not the only person in the gospel. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all involved in the gospel.

So, I want to explain that to you, if I can, just before, if this is going to be our theme for the year, let's make sure that we explain this. So, look at verse 2. Which he had promised. So, he immediately begins to understand, and Paul describes himself, we're going to come back to it, like I said, we're going to work in reverse quickly this morning. But in verse 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God, which, as he begins to explain. Notice as he is talking about the gospel, which he had promised before by his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. So, Paul immediately gets right to the center of the gospel is Jesus Christ. So, you have to understand that Jesus is the gospel, and the gospel is Jesus. There is no gospel without Jesus. So, as Paul begins to lay forth this doctrine, I want to show you this.

Notice, number 1, as we begin to understand the correlation. This is, in our title for today, the gospel of Christ. The gospel of Christ. As Paul leads to verse 16, and describes it as the gospel of Christ, we have to understand verses 2 all the way down. Now, notice if you would first that Jesus was promised. You see, part of the gospel is the fact that Jesus was promised before Jesus ever came. Notice if you would in verse 2, which he had a for, a promise, excuse me, a for by his prophets. So, you have to understand that literally that Jesus was promised. It was literally guaranteed that there was coming a Messiah, a Savior, to save us from our sins.

That was promised. By the way, God always keeps his promises. Notice, secondly, Jesus was prophesied.

He wasn't just promised because God's the one that made the promise, but he was prophesied a for time by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. So, all through the Old Testament, and you all, you've heard me talk about that often, that we go through here the prophetic scripture pointing, and you've got to understand the entire Bible, Christ is the center of the entire Bible. As you begin the word of God, it's pointing to Christ. And as you get to the beginning of the New Testament, you have the ministry of Christ. And then now, obviously, here you and I, here the whole Bible is looking towards Christ, and then as you finish, it's looking back at the finished work of Christ, and ahead to our home and glory that Christ has made possible. So, he is literally the center of it all. And if Christ is the center of the word of God, and he's the center of the gospel, he should be the center of our lives.

Everybody got that? So, he was promised, but he was also prophesied. He was promised by God. He was prophesied through the Holy Scriptures. Notice, thirdly, that Jesus was a person. That's part of the gospel. For you to understand, and me to understand, that for me as a person to be saved, Jesus had to become a person. He had to still be God, but he had to be a person.

Notice verse three. Concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the what? Flesh. So, part of the gospel is the fact that Jesus was flesh, just like you and me. He was God, but he was flesh. See, God had to become flesh for God to be able to redeem flesh.

And so, not only was he promised and prophesied, but now we're getting to the nitty gritty in a sense. He was a person. He was real. He walked on this earth just like you are and I am. He really existed. This is just a story.

It really happened. He was a person. Notice, fourthly, that Jesus is powerful. Now, look at verse three. Which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power. According to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So, he says he was declared to be the son of God with power and he describes in this very verse why he has that power.

So, let me give them to you. This is, again, just hold on. We're going to get to where it's probably more interesting, but you got to understand your doctrine. And what was the verse that I, John, oh, anyway, next week I'm going to show it to you and it's great because the verse literally teaches that you're not going to walk with God if you don't know the doctrine. And you've got to understand the doctrine of this.

Notice if you would, look at verse four. Declared to be the son of God with power. Jesus is powerful.

Why? Number one, because Jesus is God. He was declared to be the son of God. So, that means he's part of the Godhead. He is God. So, that is why he is powerful because he wasn't just of the seed of David according to the flesh, but he was declared to be the son of God. So, just in the end of that verse previous and the beginning of this verse, we find the doctrine and the teaching and literally the stability of everything that we believe that Jesus was flesh. He was man and he was God. He is powerful because he was God. Notice second because he was sinless.

Look if you would at verse four. He was declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness. You see, it wouldn't have been, it wouldn't have really helped us a lot for Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Although admirably sacrificial, if he had sin in his life, it wouldn't have done us any good.

But part of the gospel is the fact that not only was Jesus promised, not only was he then prophesied through the scriptures, not only that, not only was he a real person, but he was also God while he was a real person and he remained sinless. And you've often heard me said, I think that probably, and you've heard me so please understand this, I would not dare take one thing away from the suffering, the anguish that Jesus Christ went through on the cross because you and I, we might be, we might could somehow understand the physical pain of it if we saw it, but we'll never understand the spiritual anguish of a perfect God taking sin. But I will say this, I've often said, I think maybe even as difficult for Jesus than those hours of the crucifixion and even before that, harder than that was the 33 years he kept himself sinless.

That was as hard as that final week of his life. That was every day fighting, and you know how Satan tempts you? I mean he does tempt you, right?

It's not just, okay, I thought, man, maybe I'm just unlucky. He tempts you, right? Imagine how he tempted Jesus because he wouldn't even have to try to tempt us if he could just get Jesus to sin one time. Jesus is powerful because he was God, he was declared to be the son of God because he was sinless, he had a spirit of holiness, and notice thirdly because he resurrected from the dead. Look at verse four, by the resurrection from the dead. He was declared to be the son of God but with power because he resurrected from the dead.

That's power. The moment Jesus resurrected from the grave, there is no power like that power. And so you and I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that if I give my heart to Christ, if I follow and believe the gospel of Christ, that he is able to do what he said he would do because if he resurrected himself from the grave, and he kept his life wholly in the dead, he kept his life wholly in sinless, and God has declared him to be his son, that he can do what he said he could do. That's part of the gospel. Notice lastly, Jesus is always providing.

As Paul gives this doctrine, Jesus was promised, he was prophesied, he was a person, he is powerful. Notice verse five, Jesus is always providing. By whom? By whom we have received.

That means this is where we get it. And guess what you and I have provided to us through Jesus because he's powerful. Notice by whom we have received grace. Notice first Jesus provides grace. You need grace in your life? Guess where you get it from Jesus.

Guess why you get it, Jesus. He didn't just provide you salvation. He provides you grace.

That's the riches of his father that is rightfully the sons he has now bestowed on us. Grace. He is providing grace.

Notice second, he provides calling. Notice verse five. By whom we have received grace, notice this, and apostleship. We belong to somebody.

Notice this, for obedience to the faith among all nations. It means this, it doesn't matter who you are, what color you are, where you're from and what your background is, Jesus is willing and able to save you and he's ready to save you and not only that, he provides grace and he gives you a calling. He calls you. He literally uses you. And we begrudge that service sometimes. We only got to go to choir practice. God lets you sing for him. God have pity on our soul that that's not special to us anymore. But notice third, God gives us purpose. Now I love this.

By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations. Why? For his name. There's my purpose.

Everything in my life. It's for his name. You know sometimes when you get misunderstood, sometimes when you feel attacked, feel like you've just kind of been stabbed in the back and all those things, you have to remember this is not for my name.

And it's okay if my name goes through the ringer. This is all about his name. That's our purpose. So that's the gospel. The fact that Jesus not just came, died and rose again, but it's also the fact that Jesus was promised. He was prophesied.

He's a real person. And not only that, after he saves you, he provides grace and he provides a calling on your life and he provides a purpose for everything that you do. And Paul says literally that the gospel of God is this teaching in these verses. This is the entire gospel. And then Paul in verse 16 says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It centers around Christ, what Christ has done for us. So Paul begins his writing in the canon of scripture with verse one.

It's like this little blurb on the screen shows up. His name's Paul. By the way, God's really going to use Paul. There's more of Paul's writing in the word of God than anyone else. And so how does Paul describe himself? Before he even tells us, this is the gospel and I want you to know I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I am ready to preach the gospel, which is our missions conference theme we'll be getting to. Notice verse one and as we draw to a close this morning, let me just share this briefly with you. Look at verse one. Paul.

What is getting ready to follow because when you have a name, a subject given in a comma, it means what's following is going to describe the subject. So how does Paul, as he begins to write, how does he describe himself? And through the inspiration of God, how does God describe Paul?

Paul, number one, a servant of Christ. Dear friend, that is our highest calling. You and I are to be servants of Christ.

Now I don't want you to get this term wrong. Servant does not mean I'm in bondage. Servant, and this word servant, by the way, does not mean that somebody that almost like slavery, almost like here's a person that I own or the rights to or I control them and they're going to be my servant.

This word servant is a very different word. It means to serve freely. It means that Paul made the choice to serve Christ.

You see, you and I, and we're going to get into this next week. You and I have to determine why we're going to serve Christ. We're either going to have to serve Christ out of obligation or we're going to have to serve him out of love.

And anybody that serves him out of obligation, that doesn't last long. A servant of Christ. Paul says, I'm just here because of really what Christ has done for me.

He doesn't obligate me to anything. I just, I want to serve him now. Notice secondly, the way Paul describes himself, not just a servant of Christ, but selected by God. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle. You see, you and I, once we make the determination that we out of a heart of love want to serve Christ, we're immediately called. Now God can do something with us. You and I were called before we were ever born, but you and I have to literally submit ourselves to serve Christ. And then God's calling can take shape in our life. And I believe God calls many to do different things.

Thank God for it. It just so happened, at least for now, he called me to pastor this church. I'm the first person to pastor this church. Lord willing, I'm not going to be the last person to pastor this church. I hope I can pastor until Jesus comes. But if Jesus comes and I leave, whoever the next pastor is, I don't know if I would listen to him a lot.

Because odds are. You pray for brother Frank as he becomes the next pastor here at our... Sorry, I just killed the spear there on that one, didn't I? He said, I'm a servant of Christ. I'm selected by God. But here's where I want to end today. And I want you to hear this.

Notice what he says. Separated unto the gospel of God. Paul said, this is the way I describe myself. I'm a servant of Christ. I've been called by God. But as you put that into how does that affect my life now? If you're serving Christ and you feel like you're called by God, how does that take shape in your everyday life?

How does that equate to what happens every day? He said, I am separated unto the gospel of God. And all God's people said, and you have no idea what that means. Now listen to me.

Some of these things will be on the screen and I want you to hear me out. This phrase does not prioritize what Paul was separated from. It prioritizes what Paul was separated to. Now listen to me. The purpose of separation is to promote purity and the validity of the gospel.

Hold on. Separation is to show Christ to others, not show yourself to others. When your separation in your life is about what you're separated from and who you're separated from, and all people see is all your standards, your convictions, you have missed the entire point.

I wouldn't give you a plug nickel for somebody that says, hey, I have these standards yet. They're not faithful to church. Yet they don't tell anybody about Christ. They've missed the whole point of separation. Paul said, I'm separated. And the whole point of separation in Paul's life was not what he was separating from.

It was what he was separating to. And the closer you get to giving your life to the gospel, there's a whole lot of things that just start disappearing. There's a whole lot of things in our life, our dress, our actions, all those things that might just start changing. And it doesn't change because I'm trying to be like this person or because this preacher said I'm supposed to do this. The separation comes because I want to get so close to Christ and I want to promote the gospel so greatly and so purely that I want my life to enable me to have more opportunity to do so.

Amen. Hey, listen, you ought to be glad your preacher's telling you this. Paul said, I'm separated unto the gospel.

Look at me. If you're separated from a bunch of things, but you're not separated to this, you've missed it. You've missed it. And when your separation becomes an attitude where you're just better than everyone else, the gospel is not being glorified in that. Because there's nothing about the gospel that acts like it's better than anyone else. The gospel reaches out. The gospel loves.

Now listen to me. If we are separate from the world, but we fail to separate to the gospel, we've missed the whole point. Our ultimate goal is not separation.

Our ultimate goal is to promote the gospel. There's a lot of people that are separated just so you can say they're separated. Hey, and you're looking at a pastor that's, I'm a bit old fashioned. I was raised old fashioned.

You know, I know I'm not as old fashioned as some, but I'm a lot more old fashioned than others. But I'm here to tell you, I've watched a generation that they don't even know why they're doing it. And they've missed the whole point biblically why we are to do it. The goal is not to be able to say what I'm separated from or who I don't associate with. The whole point of separation is to literally get the gospel out. It's to show Christ. Listen to me.

Get this one. People do not get to heaven through our separation. They get to heaven through the gospel.

Now don't misunderstand me, but I'm telling you the truth. So what does it mean as we close this morning when Paul says I'm separated under the gospel of God? Number one, being separated to the gospel means you've been changed by it. Why was Paul separated unto the gospel? Because of what the gospel did for him. It changed him.

I mean, and it's a good story. I mean, here's this guy killing Christians. And on the road to Damascus, God just blinds that man. God's power just displayed to Paul. And Paul was immediately totally changed.

May I say this? You're not really going to separate to the gospel until you've been changed by it. And I don't just mean saved by it.

I mean changed by it. Number two, being separated to the gospel means you are challenged by it. You see, when Paul says I'm separated unto the gospel, it means this, that here he had done so much to hurt the cause of Christ. That now, because even after doing that, that God reached out to him. That God saved him. He was challenged to get that gospel to others. You see, if you and I fully understand the gospel, that should challenge us to do something for God. Because of what he's done for us. Not because we feel like we have to, but because we want to. I hope you'll be here next week.

I really do. Number three, being separated to the gospel means you're consumed by it. When Paul said I'm separated unto the gospel, it means this, that the gospel had taken such a role in Paul's life that it outshined everything else. That's what separation is. Separation is the fact that I am so changed and impacted by God that he outshines everything.

And I'm okay to get rid of this if it helps me get closer to him. And I'm okay to get rid of this or change this or stop this or start this if it helps me get the gospel to them. Number four, being separated to the gospel means you're committed to it. You're not committed to your church. Committed to your pastor. Pastors change.

Don't you know? If there's anybody I think that probably would be worthy of you committing to them would be brother Joe. But you cannot commit to brother Joe. We all know you can't commit to brother Daniel.

I think there is a respect and a loyalty that there should be showed, but I'm saying this. Listen, it goes way beyond that. When you're separated to the gospel, it means you're committed to the gospel. Because Daniel didn't save you. Brother Joe didn't save you. Separation doesn't save you. This church building didn't save you. Jesus saved you. And it means now I'm committed to him. And that should change how you look at things. That's why Paul says, hey let me tell you something, I am not ashamed of the gospel.

Because it changed me. Let me say this as I close. You know why Paul was not ashamed of the gospel?

Because the gospel was not ashamed of Paul. Let's bow our heads and pray this morning. Lord I love you. Lord I know what you've laid on our hearts. And I know what I believe you're wanting to do with this church. And Lord I pray that you'd help us. And Lord I think sometimes we try to do the right things. And even maybe with the right motives. Lord we run empty so often because I think Lord we just don't fully understand it. It's just the way we look at it we get confused. God bless you.