The Book That Changed the World | Part 2

Who is the true hero in the book of Romans? Let's see what Paul says about Christ. The true hero of the book of Romans is Jesus. If you have your Bible, turn to Romans chapter 1 as we learn more about the book that changed the world.

Again, here's Adrian Rogers. It is the book of Romans. It has been called the Constitution of Christianity. Let me tell you the power of this book. What a wonderful book. A masterpiece is the book of Romans. Now, we're going to look at the book of Romans and we're going to think about it as the book that changed the world, for indeed it did.

Who is the author of this book? Well, we know ultimately the Holy Spirit is the author, but who is the human author? Well, let's begin in chapter 1, verse 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. Now, don't miss this.

Don't miss this. He says here, separated unto the gospel of God. Now, it's very important. The key word there is not separated. The key word in my estimation is unto the gospel of God. Now, Paul had already been separated. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. You talk about people who lived a, quote, separated life. That is, all of the outward sins of the flesh he abhorred.

He walked the straight and narrow. The very name Pharisee implies separation. They were so careful that they paid tithe of mint anise and cum and that is when they were paying tithes.

They had a little mint plant. They would count all 10 leaves, take one of them, the tithe, and give it to God, one tenth of every sprig of mint, for example. Ye pay tithe of mint anise and cum and the Lord said to these Pharisees, he was already separated from sin. You see, if that's all the separation you have, you know what's going to make you a proud, bitter, haughty Pharisee like the apostle Paul was when he was persecuting the church before he met the Lord Jesus and before he found the grace of God.

Nature abhors a vacuum. And so if you get these things out of your life, but you don't get Jesus Christ into your life, if you're separated from, but not separated unto, you're going to become nothing but an old Pharisee. That's what you're going to become. And you need to ask yourself, is there a little Pharisee in me? Ask yourself that question, because you see, we're to be separated unto the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now what some people have as separation is I don't smoke and I don't chew and I don't go with the girls who do.

Okay? Neither does a fence post. You've got no more religion than a fence post. And I'm going to tell you, listen carefully, giving up things will not make you one scintilla of an iota more like Jesus Christ.

It'll make you a Pharisee, but it won't make you like Jesus Christ. You've got to be separated unto the gospel of Jesus Christ. And of course when you're separated unto, you're separated from. But how do you get separated from? By being separated unto, but you don't get unto by being separated from. I can't say it again, but it's true.

Now listen, it is absolutely true. The word separated here, the word separated is the word we get our word horizon from. It's a Greek word that we get our English word horizon from.

And so, and it's a compound word. It literally means separated off from unto, off horizon. Well what does that mean?

Well let's see if I can explain it. You know what the horizon is? If you go up to a tall building somewhere and look around 360 degrees you'll see as far as you can see.

That's what? The horizon. That's where the earth just tails off and that's your world. Now, do you know how to change your horizon? Change your location.

Here you just change your location. Every time you change your location, you change your horizon. So what determines your horizon is your center. What determines your horizon is your center. So, when Jesus Christ is your center, then that horizon is your world. You see, his life is the boundary of your life.

You're separated unto him. An old boy may be dating some girls looking for that girlfriend. He's dating Susie and Melody and he's dating Ann and he's dating Debbie. And then one day he meets Jane and she becomes the center of his life. And she's the center and so all these other girls are just kind of out of bounds. They're out of bounds.

They're off the horizon for him because his horizon is now, so far as his dating life, his love life, he has found a new center. And, friend, when you find the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to find a new center. And it's not, you're not going to be talking about what you gave up for Jesus.

That's foolish. You're going to understand what you have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who was the author of this book? His name is Paul. Because of the name Paul, we know he's saved. We know that this man is separated. We know that he has been surrendered.

We know he's been sent. He's just the author of the book. Thank God for the apostle Paul.

I believe the greatest Christian who ever lived. And one day in heaven, I'm going to sit down and let Paul teach me Romans. It'd be wonderful. It'd be wonderful.

Won't that be great? All right, now, here's the third thing. We talked about the author of the book that changed the world. Now let's talk about the hero of the book.

Every good book has a hero. And the hero of this book is the Lord Jesus Christ. We can find out what this book is about by reading verses 1 through 4.

Paul, watch it, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, 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. I mean, right up at the beginning of the book, he moves it to the front burner. He says, folks, folks, I'm the guy who's writing the book.

But let me tell you who I'm writing about. It is concerning God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you don't know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, you're not going to understand the book of Romans until God turns the light on in your soul.

It is a book about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Christianity is. Christianity is Christ. Now, let's see what Paul says about Christ. He says, first of all, he's the promised one.

Do you see that? Which he promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, verse 2. Paul didn't start a new religion.

What we're talking about was before the foundation of the world. And Paul is just telling us in the book of Romans what he learned in the Holy Scriptures in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is about Jesus. I wish our Jewish friends knew that the Old Testament is about the Lord Jesus. Paul was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin.

He was a pedigree. But one day, God turned the light on in his soul and the Scriptures burst to flame. You remember after Paul met the Lord on the Damascus road? He went out into the desert, out into Arabia, and he spent a couple of years out there studying. One wise man said he put in his knapsack the writings of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. He put in his knapsack the words of the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, all of these. He put in his knapsack the Psalms and he came out of the wilderness with Galatians and Ephesians and Romans in his heart and in his mind. Where did he learn all of that? Well, he learned it from the Old Testament. He said, this is what God has promised. Jesus told those people of his day, he said, search the Scriptures.

These are they which testify of me. The Old Testament is not about the Jewish nation. It's about Jesus, the Messiah of the Jews. The New Testament is about Jesus. All the Bible is about Jesus. And he is the promised one and one of the ways, precious friend, that we can know the authenticity of the Bible or the authenticity of Jesus is fulfilled prophecy.

Jesus authenticates the Bible and the Bible authenticates Jesus. He is the promised one. But not only is he the promised one, he is the provided one. He says there, he comes, he's promised, he is of the seed of David.

Do you see that there? He's of the seed of David. The Messiah was of the house and lineage of David. He is the royal heir to Israel's throne. He is Israel's Messiah according to the flesh, it says.

That is in his humanity. He's of the seed of David. But then the next verse says in verse 4, he is declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. So you see both his humanity and his deity at the same time. He is of the seed of David according to the flesh, but he's the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.

Now, listen, he is the provided one. God provided a Messiah. Jesus was not a divine man. He was not a human God. He was the God-man.

Perfect humanity and perfect deity. It's as much a heresy to deny his humanity as it is to deny his deity. Of the flesh, he's the seed of David.

Born of a virgin, flesh and blood. But declared to be the Son of God with power. He is the provided one.

Now watch it. Jesus Christ, the promised one. Jesus Christ, the provided one. Jesus Christ, the powerful one.

Look in verse 4. Declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. How do we know he was not just another wild-eyed fanatic? How do we know he was not just another religious teacher, some guru? I'll tell you how we know he walked out of that tomb. Well, you say, well, how do we know he did that?

That's a good question. He showed himself alive by many infallible proofs and people with good minds far better than mine or yours have said that there is inescapable evidence that Jesus Christ came out of that grave. More evidence than the Julius Caesar ever lived. And to say that Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead is to fly in the face of sheer reason apart from revelation. Yes, he showed himself alive by many infallible proofs. He is declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead. We serve a mighty Savior. He has conquered death, hell, sin, and the grave.

And that's what the book of Romans is about. He rose, came out of that grave. He, Jesus, the promised one. He, Jesus, the provided one. He, Jesus, the powerful one. And he, the pure one.

The Bible says this in verse 4 that he did this by the spirit of holiness. Never been a man like the Lord Jesus. How holy, how pure, how sinless is the Lord Jesus Christ. John Phillips, a dear member of this church, wrote some words that deeply stirred me.

I want to share them with you. He's talking about our Savior. He said his life was perfectly holy. He never looked with lust. He never uttered a hasty, unkind, untrue, or frivolous word.

He never entertained an impure thought. He was never accused by conscience, never inflamed by wrongful passion, never out of step with the will of God. His time was never wasted. His talents never debased for selfish ends. His influence never bad. His judgment never wrong.

He never had to apologize for anything that he did or retract a single word. He said he was never too late or too soon, never upset, never insipid, shallow or afraid. He lived on earth approximately 12,000 days, and every one of them was a marvel of holiness. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, Hebrews 7, 26. From the summit of the Mount of Transfiguration, he could have stepped straight into glory. He had absolute victory from the moment he first drew breath in that Bethlehem barn until the moment he closed his eyes in death on the cross of Calvary. He was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness.

Don't you love that? He's the pure one. You're looking for a hero?

Let me suggest mine to you if you don't have one. His name is Jesus. Oh, what a Savior! The author of the book, Paul. The hero of the book, Jesus. The theme of the book, the gospel.

Notice how it begins. Again, verse 1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated under what? The gospel of God. And right there he tells us the source of the gospel.

Paul didn't think it up. He said, I didn't receive it from man, neither was I taught it by man. It is the gospel of God, so don't tamper with it, don't pervert it. Paul said to the Galatians, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which I preached unto you, let him be accursed. And Phillips translates that, let him be damned.

Why? Because a false gospel will lead to a synthetic salvation that will lead to a very real hell. Now, Paul did not equivocate with the gospel.

Paul is not trying to be politically correct. He's just saying it is the gospel of God. He said, if an angel comes and preaches any other gospel, let him be accursed.

Paul said, if I preach any other gospel unto you than that which I preached, I need to be accursed. It is the gospel of God. But the source of the gospel is God. The subject of the gospel is Jesus.

Look, if you will, in verse 3, concerning his son Christ our Lord. It's not a gospel that alludes to him. It's not a gospel that mentions him. Friend, Jesus is the gospel. His death, burial, resurrection for our sins, that is the gospel. It is the gospel, the good news of Christ. The word gospel means good news.

And it is good news concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, why do we have churches that are filled with moral whirlings who've never been born again? You know, a church is supposed to be a sheepfold. It's more like a zoo.

Why? Because people have met religion. They've not met Jesus. They've met denominations. They've not met Jesus.

They've met programs. They've not met Jesus. They've met causes, but they've not met Jesus. Christianity is not a creed, not a code, not a cause. It is Christ.

Did that get in? It is Jesus to know the Lord Jesus. Christ is your personal Lord and Savior.

Not to know about him, but to know him. You can take Confucius out of Confucianism and still have Confucianism. You can take Buddha out of Buddhism and still have Buddhism. You can take Muhammad out of Islam and still have Islam, but you cannot take Jesus out of Christianity and still have Christianity. It is not just simply some truths that a man taught.

It is a vital relationship with him and to take Jesus Christ out of Christianity would be like taking the water out of a well, the blue out of the sky, notes out of music, and numbers out of mathematics. I'm telling you, folks, Christianity is Christ. The source of the gospel is the gospel of God, the subject of the gospel. Jesus Christ and the supply of the gospel.

Let me show you what that is. Verse 5, by whom we have received grace and apostleship. Do you know what grace is? Grace is what makes God save people like we. Apart from works of any kind, it is the sheer, absolute gift of God. The just shall live by faith. By faith I receive the gift of God.

By faith I receive the grace of God. Folks, you're not saved by good works. You're not saved by religion. You're not saved by baptism. You're not saved by church membership.

You're not saved by giving you money. You're saved by the grace of God. And we're going to learn about that in the book of Romans.

What a wonderful, wonderful book this is. A little boy came forward in the church service and wanted to be baptized and they said, Well, son, tell us how you got saved. He said, Well, I did my part and God did His.

Well, they didn't like that. They said, Well, tell us about your part. He said, I did the sinning and He did the saving.

Well, that's it. Oh, in my hand no price I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling. When I was a teenage boy, in a revival meeting they gave an invitation and I went forward. They said, Well, Adrian, why did you come?

Did you want to be saved? Yes, sir. Be seated, Adrian. A kind person whose name I cannot remember sat by me and said, Now, how do you spell your name?

A-D-R-I-A-N. Rogers, is that right? Yes. And you're coming accepting Christ as your Savior?

Yes, sir, I am. Check that and so forth. I just sat there.

That's all it told me. Later on they said, Adrian has come. Those of you that rejoice that He's come, would you lift your hand and say, Amen? Of course they rejoiced. I'd been a terror in the neighborhood. And they said, Well, we're glad that He's come. And, you know, I was sincere. I meant business. But, folks, I didn't have assurance.

You know why? I'd still not learned about grace. And I rode a spiritual roller coaster for a couple of years, but I learned the truths that I'm sharing with you today from the book of Romans. I learned about the grace of God. And one night after I'd walked Joyce home, I stopped on the corner of 38th Street and Calvin Avenue in West Palm Beach, Florida. And I said, God, I don't know whether I'm lost and the Holy Spirit has me under conviction or whether I'm saved and the devil's trying to make me doubt.

Have you ever been there? I don't know where I am. But, God, I'm going to get it settled. And I know now that I'm saved by the grace of God. And I looked straight up into that Florida sky and to those stars and I said, dear God, right now with all of my heart, once and for all, now and forever, I trust you to save me. If I am saved, this can't take it away. But I'm going to nail down a stake now. I trust you. I don't look for a sign.

I don't ask for a feeling. I stand on your word. I receive the grace of God. And, friend, a river of peace started to flow through my heart and through my life.

And it's flowing this very minute. It's the river of grace. That is the supply of the gospel. And we're going to be learning about this marvelous, matchless, infinite grace. The author, Paul.

The hero, Jesus. The subject, the glorious gospel of the grace of God. We're going to have a good time together as we examine the foundations of our faith. I want to tell you some good news. The gospel is good news.

You can be saved today forever if you will trust Christ. And I want to help you to do that right now. I want to help you to pray. And I want you to pray right now, right now to receive the gift of God.

Dear God, just pray sincerely in your heart. Dear God, I know that you love me. I know that you want to save me. Jesus, I believe you're the Son of God. I believe that God raised you from the dead. I believe you paid for my sin with your blood on the cross. And now by faith, I receive the gift of salvation right now. I don't look for a sign.

I don't ask for a feeling. I stand on your word. You're now my Lord and my Savior now. Thank you for saving me. Now, Lord Jesus, I will make it public. I will not be ashamed of you because you died for me. And if you'll just give me the strength, I will make this public. I will not be ashamed of you. Thank you for saving me. I will follow you the rest of my life.

I am your bond slave. Begin now to make me the person you want me to be. In your name I pray.

Amen. And if you prayed that prayer, receiving Jesus as your Savior, claiming him as Lord of your life, we want to celebrate with you. Go to our Discover Jesus page on the website. There you'll find answers you may need about your newfound faith.

There's a response section as well. Share your testimony. Tell us how this message has impacted you. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab that says Discover Jesus. Welcome to God's forever family.

Let us hear from you today. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of this message, call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD to order The Book That Changed the World. That's the title of today's lesson. It's also part of the insightful Foundations for Our Faith series.

For that complete collection, all 27 powerful messages, call 1-877-LOVEGOD or go online to order at lwf.org slash radio. Or you can write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Well, as we begin to study the Book of Romans, perhaps it's a good time to reaffirm your relationship with Jesus, who is the source of the gospel, the supplier of grace. Join us in the weeks ahead as we study the foundations of our faith, right here on Love Worth Finding. You know, at Love Worth Finding Ministries, our mission is to share the profound truth of the gospel so simply that anyone can understand. That's why we're proud to tell you about our newest book, His Story. In this collection of eight powerful messages, Adrian Rogers shares the largest pieces of the Bible story from start to finish in a simple, clear way. Learn about God's purpose and plan from Genesis to Revelation in this insightful new resource. For more information about the book, His Story, or to purchase a copy, go to our online store at lwf.org slash radio. That's lwf.org slash radio. Or you can write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. And thanks for your continued support of Love Worth Finding.