The Message of the Gospel

Let's open our Bibles tonight, Romans chapter 1.

Romans chapter 1, and we're going to read here in just a moment, starting with verse 1.

Make our way through to the end of verse 4 tonight, Lord willing. I'm going to try to make it somewhat brief. I don't know that it'll work out that way, so it's not a promise, okay?

We do have our business meeting tonight. But I introduced this series of sermons out of the book of Romans. Introduced it by saying that this, in a sense, is the gospel according to Paul.

Because the gospel is his theme. And throughout the book of Romans, Paul is going to masterfully just lay it all out.

The full gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And last Sunday night, I told you that the theme initially, for several verses here throughout chapter 1, the first part of chapter 1, is the significance of the gospel.

Because the gospel is the theme and the significance of it. And we looked last Sunday, Sunday night, at the mandate of the gospel. And the mandate is to be serving ones.

To be sent ones. To be separated ones. In relation to the gospel, that's the mandate to us as God's people.

To do these things. As Paul is giving testimony to him, to himself, being a serving one, sent one, separated one. And we identify with that in Paul.

Though we're not apostles in the same way that he was an apostle. We're still, we still come under and are to respond to the mandate of the gospel. Now tonight, I want us to look at the message of the gospel.

And Paul has some things to say about the message. Not the message in the sense of all the details of the gospel. He's going to take the entire letter to lay all of those things out for us.

All the details, the substance of the gospel. But the very essence of the gospel. And the message. What I'm going to call the message of the gospel. Let's start with verse 1. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.

God, which, that's how we know that the theme here is the gospel. Which he, God, promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures.

What did he promise? The gospel. Concerning his son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born 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. Now there's a whole lot there in those four verses.

And I'm calling it the message. The message of the gospel. Now consider again what Paul says here in verse 1. He said, and this is testimony, separated to or unto the gospel of God.

That's the first thing we need to key in on there. The gospel of God. Now the word gospel, or we might translate it or define it the good news.

That's what the word gospel means, good news. The gospel here in the text is not a verb. It is a noun. You say, well, big deal.

Well, the point I want to make is, it is not the work of preaching that Paul was separated to. Though he was that. That's not his point here. Not the work of the gospel or the preaching of the gospel.

It's not talking. He's not talking here about the act of carrying the gospel. Though Paul was dedicated to that.

He's not talking here about displaying the truths of the gospel to those who are around us. He's not talking about modeling the gospel. The point here is not living out the implications of the gospel.

Though Paul was very clearly dedicated to those things. And all of us as believers should be as well. Well, I'm going to make a point here, so stick with me.

This is a noun. That is, the word denotes the message itself. The message.

The very character of it. Not necessarily the details. Now he's going to get to that. Not necessarily all the essential elements of the gospel.

Though he's going to again. He's going to unfold all of that throughout the book of Romans. But he's here talking about the very character of it. The very essence of it. The quality.

Of the message. The gospel. Now, grammatically speaking. The nouns. The noun has a modifier here.

What is it that modifies the noun gospel? Any grammarians out there? Of God.

Of God. The word theos comes after that. God. And so Paul said he was dedicated to or separated unto the gospel of God.

And right off, our conclusion is he's talking about the gospel that belongs to God. That's of him. Possessive. That is God's gospel.

So Paul was separated unto God's gospel. Or separated unto the gospel belonging to God. It's possession. But it shows more than just possession here.

Now, stick with me. Y'all looking like you're a little bewildered. And where is he going here with this? More than possession.

It shows origin of the gospel. That's what we need to get here. He separated unto the gospel of God. Now, wouldn't you have to admit that the gospel of God is kind of a different way of putting it, isn't it?

Because he's not talking about what the gospel, the elements of the gospel or the essential message of the gospel. He's talking about the origin of it. The very essence of it.

You see, the gospel is both the possession of God. That is, it came from him. And it is the essence of God. For example, Jonathan sitting down here.

And you might say Jonathan or would say Jonathan is the son of Don Coleman. And he is. He's my son. Glad to have him as my son. He's the son of Don Coleman.

And if you said that, we would be saying he belongs to me. He doesn't always like that idea. You know, sometimes he likes to belong to himself. Sorry, son.

But that's what you would be saying, really. Generally speaking, he's the son of Don Coleman. That is, he belongs to me. He's my possession. He's my son. Right.

But you would also be saying that he came from me. Right. He came from me. He's my son.

He came out of me. And so it speaks of his origin. And also, in a sense, you could say that he is me. But we really would not like that. Okay.

Just that would be a terrible thing. And someday, you know, he'll change his mind about that. Like I did about my father. You know, I want to be just like him.

You know. But for now, you know, teenager or soon to be one officially. He wants to be anything but like his dad. You know, that way. But that's what you would be saying in essence.

In a sense. He is the son of Don Coleman. He is my possession. He finds his origin in me. He is me.

Chip off the old block kind of thing. You know, essence. Right. So we could translate verse one this way. Separated unto the God gospel.

And we would not do damage to the grammar. The God gospel. Or the one and only divine gospel.

And that's where we're getting. In fact, it could be translated that way. The divine gospel. See, Paul was separated unto something very special.

Something very unique. Not just any old gospel. Not just any good news. But the divine gospel. See. And so are we.

Separated unto that divine gospel. Sent to proclaim that divine gospel. Sent out to live out and proclaim the divine gospel.

Because you see, there are many messages out there. There are, in a sense, many gospels out there. In fact, we kind of sometimes use the phrase, that's the gospel truth.

You know, we just kind of use the word gospel. And in a secular sense, we could use it to apply to any good news or any truthful news. Just from the bare meaning of the word.

But it may not need to be emphasized here. But if we're going to study through the book of Romans and try to unlock all of the truth there. Then we need to acknowledge the fact that we're not just talking about any gospel.

This is the one and only divine gospel that Paul was separated unto. Two. There's only one. One divine gospel.

One divine message. And Paul was separated unto it. Now, what is the message of this gospel? Well, the answer, again, really takes up the whole letter, the book of Romans.

And it's going to take us some time, but we're going to look at all of it. But Paul reveals here what we really ought to already know. And that is that Christ.

Christ is the essence. The real message of the gospel. The gospel is Christ. It's Jesus Christ. He is the essence of the gospel.

He is the message of this divine gospel. And that's what Paul is talking about here. And so Paul presents the Christ, the Messiah of the gospel.

And he does so in a threefold way. And that's what we'll look at tonight. Number one. Paul says that Christ is the revealed one of the gospel.

The revealed one. Look at verse 2 again. Which, well, let me back up because we need to just kind of move into it from verse 1.

Paul said, I'm a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Called to be an apostle. Apostle separated to the gospel of God or the divine gospel.

Which, this gospel which, he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures. It's something that was promised before.

And so, let's understand that the divine gospel is not a new thing. Not really a new thing when the first century church was birthed.

Not a new thing. The divine gospel is not a revision of the true religion. Not a revision of it. It's not a revised second edition of the gospel.

Now, we might say it's been updated because of the progressive revelation of God. And we do now, on this side of the cross, enjoy the full gospel.

Something that the Old Testament did not know was still a mystery to them. But they were expecting the coming of Christ. But they did not see the cross necessarily. Did not see the church.

In fact, the church was a mystery in the Old Testament. So, we do have the updated. But it's not a different gospel. Not a revised gospel. It is the same gospel that God began to reveal all the way back in the beginning.

In the book of Revelation. And so, the gospel is really the gospel of which Paul speaks here. Is the fulfillment of the promise that was announced by the prophets in the Old Testament.

It's the fulfillment of that. It is not a new gospel. But it is the, we can put it this way, the heart of the Old Gospel. Or the Old Testament Gospel.

That is, in the Old Testament, we have God's message. And it's God's message was a promised Redeemer who is coming. He is coming. King. Ruler.

One who would bring peace. That's the Old Testament Gospel. The Redeemer's coming. In the New Testament, God's message is, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

Or, we might just put both together and look at Luke chapter 4. Look at Luke chapter 4 and verse 18.

In fact, in verse 16, we understand that Jesus is in Nazareth. Visiting his hometown. And he's gone into the synagogue on the Sabbath.

And he stood to read. Pretty much like I would stand to preach. He stood to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.

And when he had opened the book, verse 17, He found the place where it was written. And he began to read. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives. And recovery of sight to the blind. To set at liberty those who are oppressed. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

This is the message of the Messiah. The Messiah would preach. That's what he would come to do. And that's what they were expecting. Long expecting for the Messiah to come.

To do just these things that the prophet Isaiah foretold. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And then, verse 20, He closed the book. Or rolled up the scroll.

And gave it back to the attendant. And sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him. This is an incredible moment. And he began to say to them.

Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Now what was he saying? I'm him. I'm the Messiah.

See, he puts both together. It's not some new gospel. It's the fulfillment of what has been prophesied by the prophets. All the way through the Old Testament. And now Jesus says, Today it's fulfilled.

The good news is here. And my mind goes back to those shepherds again. They were out there tending their flocks.

You know. And Jesus has been born. Though they didn't know it. And they have that heavenly, that angelic visitation. And the angel says to them, Good news. I got good news for you.

The Messiah is here. I'm going to paraphrase it. Good news. Gospel. Everything you've been looking for. All that the prophets have been foretelling would come.

He's here. He's here. See. So the gospel has come. It's the divine gospel. It's not a new gospel. It is the heart of the old gospel.

Or the Old Testament gospel in that sense. Now. So we do not have two messages. The Old Testament and the New Testament. Don't separate your Bible. Even though most preachers.

Including your pastor. Preach more out of the New Testament. Than they ever do out of the Old Testament. It's not that we have two Bibles in one cover. It's the same revelation. It is all one revelation of God.

Both Old and New Testament. It is the whole complete revelation of God. And it reaches its climax at the cross. At the gospel of Christ.

Now. It was Paul's special calling. To take. I believe. To take the message of the Christ. Of the Messiah. Revealed in the Old Testament.

To take that message. Revealed in the Old Testament. And to explain it in light of the cross. To. To. In a sense. Connect the dots. Now. He wasn't just doing this on his own.

He didn't just analyze all of this. And come to his own conclusions. He was moved. Born along by the Holy Spirit. Who connected the dots for him.

He connected. The Old Testament. To the cross. One great scholar. Put it this way. He said. There is a scarlet thread.

Running through each Old Testament page. And becomes in the New Testament. The blood of Christ. Shed for the ransom of many. So first of all.

He is the revealed one. Of the gospel of God. We're talking about the. Gospel itself. The divine gospel. The essence of it. It's Christ. It's. It's Jesus.

That's why. It's all right. To say. That preacher stand. And preach Christ. Preach him. That's the same as preaching the gospel. Because in essence. The very substance of it.

Is Christ. It's Jesus. So he's the revealed one. And then he says something else. He says he is the. Reigning. One. Of the gospel.

Of God. Look at verse three again. Concerning his son Jesus Christ. Our Lord. Who was born of the seed of David. According to the flesh.

Born of the seed. Of David. According to the flesh. That is. He is. King. He is not just any king. He's a special king.

He's Messiah. He is the reigning one. Christ's right to reign. And in two ways. Paul. In our text here.

States. Christ's right. To reign. To be the reigning one. To. To. Two. Two ways. Or two reasons. Why he's the reigning one.

Positionally. And. Personally. And just put it down. Just like that. Christ's right to reign. Positionally.

And. Personally. Now actually. Paul. mentions. Or establishes. The personal right. Or for. Jesus to. Reign personally. In your lives.

First. But we'll take. Take the second one. First. Positionally. Did you notice. What he said there. In verse three. That he was. Born. Of the seed of David.

Is that important. It is. Very important. Because that is. Tantamount to saying. That this Jesus. Is the Messiah.

He's the one. You've been looking for. One you've been waiting for. He's the one. The prophets. Have been talking about. Over the centuries. He's the seed of David. Not just simply.

Or born of David. He. He's not just simply. A descendant of David. In. In a biological sense. And he certainly was that. To qualify. But. To say.

That. Someone is of the seed of David. Is just. The same as saying. The Messiah. That's how they would refer to him. Born. Or.

Made. King James Version. Has the word. Made. Of the seed of David. And that's really. A better translation. Or came into being. Genomai.

Came into being. The seed of David. And it's interesting. That the New Testament. Begins. And. Ends. With a reference. To Jesus. Being the seed of David.

Did you know that? You know. The New Testament. Is all about. Christ. Of course. And if you'll just.

If you don't want to turn to it. I'll just go ahead and read it. But in verse 1. Of Matthew. Chapter 1. Matthew. Writes it this way. And this is the very beginning.

Of the New Testament. The book. Of the genealogy. Of Jesus Christ. The son. Of David. To write off.

The New Testament. Establishes. This Jesus. Is not just any ordinary man. Or some great preacher. Some healer. Or someone special. In that sense. That would come. And model.

The essence. Of the Christian life. He is the Messiah. The one and only. He's the son of David. So it opens that way. And if you'll turn. Over to Revelation.

The last chapter. Of the book of Revelation. Chapter 22. And verse 16. Jesus is speaking. I know that.

Because the words. Are in red. In my Bible. Okay. Now it is Jesus speaking. Whether you have. A red letter edition. Or not. Okay. Verse 16.

I Jesus. Have sent my angel. To testify to you. These things. In the churches. I am the root. And the offspring. Of David. There it is again. Near to the end.

Of the New Testament. The New Testament. Opens. And closes. With. This establishment. Establishing. This reality. That Jesus. Is indeed. The. Christ.

The Messiah. And. It does so. With this. This designation. Son. Of David. A born. Of David. So both.

Matthew. And Luke. If we were to. Look at those two. Gospels. We would discover. That both Matthew. And Luke. Were given. The privilege.

To trace. The lineage. Of Jesus. Jesus. And they. Rightfully. Or. Traced. His rightful. Claim. To the throne. Of David.

Thereby. Establishing. His Messiahship. But did you. Know. That no one. No one. Considered. That at the cross. No one. Did. That Jesus.

Could possibly. Be the Messiah. They were done. With that. Maybe initially. In Jesus ministry. They were looking. At him. And scrutinizing. Him. And wondering.

If he was the one. Several even. Asked the question. And even. That passage. I read a moment ago. When Jesus. Is in his hometown. And he's preaching. And he says. Today. This has been fulfilled.

In your hearing. They were. Their eyes. Were fixed on him. That maybe. He's the one. And then. When he made that claim. Of course. You might remember. They said. Well. Isn't this. Just the son of Joseph.

We know him. We know his family. He couldn't be the Messiah. We get to the cross. All. Of those. Thoughts. Are gone.

No one. Considered. That Jesus. Was the Messiah. Then. Isaiah. Chapter 53. Speaks. Of the suffering. Of Christ. And he. Asks. Who shall. Declare.

His generation. But no one. Did. There at the cross. And why. Is that. Why. Did the Jewish.

Leadership. Not even. Consider. At that point. That he was. Indeed. The son of David. That his lineage. Was from David. That he was.

Possibly. The Messiah. For them. To acknowledge. That at that point. Would be. Tantamount. To proclaiming. His soul. Right. To the throne. Of David. The one.

They've been looking. For. His Messiahship. Pilate said. To the Jews. Behold your king. Remember. Boy. It made them mad.

He even had. A. A. Sign. Or placard. Put above. His head. On the cross. Pilate. And he put it. In three languages. Put it in Greek. And Latin.

And Hebrew. And it said. This is Jesus. King. Of the Jews. And the Jews. Got so angry. About that. They said. Don't write that.

Write. That he claimed. To be the king. Of the Jews. And Pilate said. What I've written. I've written. That's from the mouth. Of the pagan. See. No one declared.

His generation. But he was. In very fact. The king. Of the Jews. The son. Of David. The king. They had been. Looking for. And longing for.

And waiting for. So positionally. He has the right. To reign. He's Messiah. But to make it more. More personal. He has the right.

To reign. Personally. And he really. Must reign. Personally. In your life. Why is that?

Because. He is. According to Paul. Here. Back to our text. He is. Jesus Christ. Our.

Lord. Those are personal words. So not just simply. He's the king. And has the right. To reign as Messiah.

In the big picture. Master. But. On a personal basis. Because of who he is. And what he has done. He has the right. To rule. In your life. In my life. Our. Lord.

Our. Personal master. You see. The. The world. May deny him. His. His. Throne rights. As the seed of David. In the world. Is doing that.

But every believer. Is duty bound. Duty bound. To. To possess. Our own Jesus. As both Lord.

Lord. And Christ. And Christ. So he's not just Messiah. But he's also. Lord. Now there's a third aspect. Of the message of the gospel. And it is.

Christ. Is the revealed one. He is the reigning one. And then thirdly. Christ is the. Resurrected one. The resurrected one. Look at verse four. And declared to be the son of God.

With power. According to the spirit of holiness. By the resurrection. From the dead. By the resurrection. From the dead. So in verse three.

We read a moment ago. We have. This Christ. Jesus. Born of the seed of David. According to the flesh. According to the flesh.

That is in his humanity. But here in verse four. He was declared. To be. The son of God. According to the spirit of holiness. So.

Then verse three. Reveals. His. Human nature. Verse four. Reveals. His. Divine. Nature.

Both. Both of those. Are there for us. In. In the book of Romans. Jesus. Is the son of David. According to the flesh. But above that. Jesus. Is the son of God. He's the son of God.

With power. According to the spirit. Of holiness. Yes. But I want you to notice. Another distinction. Here. In the text. Verse three. Says. That he was. Born. Of the seed of David.

Or as I said a moment ago. Made. Of the seed of David. That is. He is not. Or was not. Eternally. Flesh. This is kind of a side doctrine. To. To point out.

Jesus. Has not always been. Flesh. In blood. He was made flesh. Through the incarnation. But verse four. Says. That he was declared.

To be. The son of God. Now here we have. That son of God. Or of God. Again. I remember. A moment ago. I said. That the gospel of God. The real meaning.

There is. That. The gospel. Is the divine gospel. Very unique. Very special. Gospel. Not just the gospel. Belonging to God. But it is the God gospel.

The divine gospel. And the same. Principle. Holds true. Here. When the Bible. Says. That Jesus. Was declared. To be the son of God. Not the son. Born.

Out of God. But. The God son. That is the divine son. So we can apply. The same thing there. And so. He is the divine son.

Now the word. Declared. Is a word. That. By the way. We considered. This morning. In first Peter. Though it's translated. With a different English word. It is the word.

Horitzo. Horizon. We get. Our horizon. He was declared. And the idea is. That he was manifested. Or determined. Or. Ordained.

Some. Some. Lexicons. Say. That. It means. To set up a monument. To establish. To mark it off. You see. Something.

Happened. Some. Two thousand. Years ago. Something. Took place. In history. Something. This thing.

That happened. In history. Declared. To the world. That Jesus. Is the eternal. Son of God. The divine. Son of God. Do you know. What it was. You might be tempted.

To say. It was the cross. As important. As the cross. Of Christ. Was. And is. There were a lot of people. Who died on a cross.

Thousands. And thousands. It's not the cross. That declared. The divine. Identity. Of the Lord. Jesus Christ. What was it then? The resurrection.

The resurrection. That's what. Paul says here. Declared. To be. The divine. Son. I could just. Kind of.

Paraphrate. Or transliterate it. Translated. In a different way. Bring out. The meaning. Declared. He was. He was. Marked off. He was.

Determined. To be. The divine. Son. How? By. The resurrection. From the dead. So the resurrection. Of Jesus Christ.

Is. A monument. To his deity. A monument. To it. The proof. Of it. The proof. That he is God.

A powerful. Proof. According to Paul. Here. And so the resurrection. We might just. Bring out the. Theological. Implication. The resurrection.

Of Jesus Christ. Is a monument. Up. On the territory. Of death. We'll just use that. That kind of. That kind of. Imagery. A monument. We can.

Imagine a monument. Being. Stood up. As a marker. To mark something. That's important. Something we need to remember. Something that's very valid. And so. The resurrection.

Of Jesus Christ. Is. A monument. Raised. Upon the territory. Of death. Because the resurrection. All about life. It's a monument. Raised.

Upon the territory. Of death. And it lays. Claim. To the whole. Region. Of death. Lays claim. To it. Resurrection. Does. That is. All those.

Who died. In Christ. And this monument. Is the. Guarantee. Of the triumph. Of life. Over death. See how rich. The doctrine. Is here. The guarantee.

Of that. The triumph. Of life. Over death. Jesus said. In John. 11. 25. I am. The resurrection. And the life. He that believes.

In me. Though he were dead. Yet. Shall he live. And so. The message. Of the gospel. It is. Christ. It's him.

The revealed. One. The reigning. One. The resurrected. One. Amen. And. Amen.. Thank you.