Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 1 as we examine what the Gospel is all about.  Some of you may be thinking this is simplistic, you already know what the Gospel is all about, and that may be true, but do you realize, according to The Barna Research Group, that 48% of Christians who feel it is their responsibility to share the Gospel message believe that “if people are generally good, or do enough good things for others . . . they will earn places in heaven.”

            That my friend is shocking to me and I hope to you because if they are preaching a Gospel of salvation by works, it is another Gospel and it will not save you!  Paul, in Galatians 1:6-9 warned us of this very thing regarding a works salvation and this is what he said of it, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.  As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”  You know when you are trying to make a point you repeat yourself, that is what Paul is doing here, he wants us to clearly understand that a works salvation is a different Gospel, it is a perverted Gospel!

            Thus, I think it is important for us to understand the Gospel so as we share it, we are presenting it correctly for if we don’t, it will be deadly to the person receiving it!  It won’t bring them life but death and thus, if we don’t present the Gospel message clearly and accurately, if we dress it up to be something that it is not, then we are doing what was done many years ago and notice the deadly consequences that took place.  We are told: 

            Some years ago a fearful railroad wreck took a dreadful toll of life and limb in an eastern state.  A train, loaded with young people returning from school, was stalled on a suburban track because of what is known as a “hot-box.”  The limited was soon due, but a flagman was sent back to warn the engineer in order to avert a rear-end collision.  Thinking all was well, the crowd laughed and chatted while the train-hands worked on in fancied security. Suddenly the whistle of the limited was heard and on came the heavy train and crashed into the local, with horrible effect.

            The engineer of the limited saved his own life by jumping, and some days afterwards was hauled into court to account for his part in the calamity. And now a curious discrepancy in testimony occurred.  He was asked, “Did you not see the flagman warning you to stop?”  He replied, “I saw him, but he waved a yellow flag, and I took it for granted all was well, and so went on, though slowing down.”  The flagman was called, “What flag did you wave?”  “A red flag, but he went by me like a shot.”  “Are you sure it was red?”  “Absolutely.”  Both insisted on the correctness of their testimony, and it was demonstrated that neither was color-blind.  Finally the man was asked to produce the flag itself as evidence. After some delay he was able to do so, and then the mystery was explained.  It had been red, but it had been exposed to weather so long that all the red was bleached out, and it was but a dirty yellow!

            Oh, the lives eternally wrecked by the yellow gospels of the day – the bloodless theories of unregenerate men that send their hearers to their doom instead of stopping them on their downward road!

                                                - Illustrations of Bible Truth by H. A. Ironside, Moody Press, 1945, pp. 62-63

            With that said, let’s begin reading in Romans chapter 1; starting in verse 16 and see what Gospel the Lord wants us to share with the lost!

            Do you see how important the Gospel is to man?  Paul says it is the power of God to save us and thus, it is important, it is vital we understand what the Gospel is all about.  First of all the word “Gospel,” EUANGELION in the Greek, is used some sixty times in this epistle!  The word itself means “good news” or “glad tidings.”

            This was a common term that was used in the cult worship of the Emperor’s.  Many of these men claimed to be god’s, they saw themselves as deity, and thus, demanded the worship of the people from the slave to the rulers of nations.  When a favorable thing came to pass the town herald would proclaim to the citizens, “Euangelion! Euangelion!” or “Good news!  Good news!  The Emperors wife has given birth to a son!” or whatever the case may be!

            What is the good news that Paul is proclaiming here in Romans?  First of all let me give you the bad news for you need bad news for there to be good news.  All you have to do is turn on the radio, read the newspaper, turn on the news and you will see there is plenty of bad news.  From murder, to rape, to drug abuse, to divorce, to deadly diseases, to earthquakes, to fires, to wars and it is a mess.  Not only that, it is even worse, the Chicago Cubs who were winning the Division Championship series 3 to 1 against the Florida Marlins ended up losing the series 4 to 3 and did not make it to the World Series once again. In fact, the last time they won a Pennant was 1945 and the World Series was 1908!  Things are really bad!

            Now I have never experienced this personally, but I am told that when you buy an expensive diamond, as they show it to you; they place it on a backdrop of a black cloth because it shows its beauty, the brilliance of the diamond even more.  I believe that is what we see here.  In the midst of all the bad news that is out there, in the midst of how black things are, here comes the beauty, the brilliance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News!

            Now please understand that the bad news is even worse than I have said. You see, man, sinful man, rebellious man, is separated from God with no hope of restoring that relationship with Him on his own.  Listen to how God sees sinful man in Isaiah 59:1-15, “Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.  But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.  For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity. . .

. . . No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.  They hatch vipers' eggs and weave the spider's web; He who eats of their eggs dies, And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.  Their webs will not become garments, Nor will they cover themselves with their works; Their works are works of iniquity, And the act of violence is in their hands.  Their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; Wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known, And there is no justice in their ways; They have made themselves crooked paths; Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.  Therefore justice is far from us, Nor does righteousness overtake us; We look for light, but there is darkness! For brightness, but we walk in blackness!  We grope for the wall like the blind, And we grope as if we had no eyes; We stumble at noonday as at twilight; We are as dead men in desolate places.  We all growl like bears, And moan sadly like doves; We look for justice, but there is none; For salvation, but it is far from us.  For our transgressions are multiplied before You, And our sins testify against us; For our transgressions are with us, And as for our iniquities, we know them: In transgressing and lying against the LORD, And departing from our God, Speaking oppression and revolt, Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.  Justice is turned back, And righteousness stands afar off; For truth is fallen in the street, And equity cannot enter.  So truth fails, And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.”

            This is man apart from God and no matter how good he thinks he is, how religious he may be, Isaiah tells us, “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.”  Isaiah 64:6.  That is bad news folks!  It is dark, there is no hope, no way out, and man is lost!

            Now, what may be impossible with man is very possible with God.  You see, Paul tells us that the Gospel, the Good News is the power of God to salvation, the Gospel will save us!  Now please understand that the Gospel is not just a theological idea, an abstract thought or idea, but it truly is Jesus!  Paul said in Romans 1:1-5, “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, 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.  Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name.”  Also, in        I Corinthians 15:1-4 Paul tells us once again what the Gospel is all about, “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you — unless you believed in vain.  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

            Do you see that?  The Gospel truly is Jesus; His life, His death and His resurrection from the dead!  Man was lost in his sins; Jesus came to pay in full the penalty for our sins.  Man has a heavy burden of guilt upon his life, Jesus came to remove that burden of guilt from our lives.  Man has no meaning to life apart from Christ, thus, Jesus came to give our life meaning!  You see, it is Good News – it is Great News! It is as Paul said in I Timothy 1:15, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.”

            Charles Hodge tells us regarding the Gospel of Jesus Christ:

            The gospel is God’s message of mercy to humanity.  It contains an exhibition of the plan, and the only plan, of salvation. It sets forth the person, the work, and the offices of Christ, and urges all to whom it comes to accept Christ as their God and Savior, and to devote themselves to His worship and service; and it assures those who do so that they shall never perish, but shall have eternal life.  In one sense it is everyone’s duty, provided he or she has received the knowledge of the gospel, to preach it, to make it known to others.  The commission and command – “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15) – is given not to the apostles exclusively, but to the whole church and all its members.  Every member has the right and the obligation to make known this great salvation to his fellow humans.

                                                - Charles Hodge

            The problem today is that people are offended by the Gospel.  They are outraged that you would tell them that they are sinners, that they are evil, and that they are going to Hell!  Thus, what Christians have done, what some churches have done, is they have edited out all the negative aspects of the Gospel and made it into a “feel good” gospel.  In fact, in some churches you can’t even preach about sin because it is too negative!  Guess what – it is suppose to be negative!  If you are not a sinner, then why in the world do you need a Savior? You see, you don’t!  But that is not the case, we are sinners separated from God because of our sin and we do need a Savior, we do need Jesus!

            Let me share with you these words from Robert Schuller, who, according to Christianity Today “. . . is reaching more non-Christians than any other religious leader in America.”  Listen carefully to how he feels about what Paul said of Christ being our Savior and what He came to do, – “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” He came to save you and me.  But Robert Schuller says:

            “I don’t think anything has been done in the name of Christ and under the banner of Christianity that has proven more destructive to human personality and, hence, counterproductive to the evangelism enterprise than the often crude, uncouth, and unchristian strategy of attempting to make people aware of their lost and sinful condition.”

            I guess he would rather leave them in that condition!  The reality is, he doesn’t see man as sinful; the Gospel to him is a social gospel, a feel good gospel because he doesn’t want to hurt people’s fragile self-esteem by calling them sinners.  Jesus probably didn’t understand this principle for He said in John 8:24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am [He], you will die in your sins.”  That is pretty negative; in fact, Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone else!  How come?  Because it is the truth, that if you don’t receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior you will die in your sins, you are a sinner in need of a Savior!

            Of this perverted Gospel that many are preaching today, listen to what Dave Wilkerson has to say:

            There is an evil wind . . . blowing into God’s house, deceiving multitudes of God’s chosen people. . . . It is a scriptural take-off on Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich.

            This perverted gospel seeks to make gods of people.  They are told, “Your destiny is in the power of your mind.  Whatever you can conceive is yours.  Speak it into being. Create it by a positive mind set.  Success, happiness, perfect health is all yours – if you will only use your mind creatively. Turn your dreams into reality by using mind power.”

            Let it be known once and for all, God will not abdicate His lordship to the power of our minds, negative or positive. We are to seek only the mind of Christ, and His mind is not materialistic; it is not focused on success or wealth. Christ’s mind is focused on the glory of God and obedience to His Word.

            No other teaching so ignores the Cross and the corruption of the human mind. It bypasses the evil of our ruined Adam nature, and it takes the Christian’s eye off Christ’s gospel of eternal redemption and focuses it on earthly gain.

            Saints of God, flee from this . . . !

                                                - Dave Wilkerson

            Also, Geoffrey Wilson said this regarding what is happening in churches today:

            The unpopularity of a crucified Christ has prompted many to present a message which is more palatable to the unbeliever, but the removal of the offense of the cross always renders the message ineffective.  An inoffensive gospel is also an inoperative gospel. Thus Christianity is wounded most in the house of its friends.”

                                                - Geoffrey Wilson

            Folks, if you preach a feel good gospel; a health, wealth and prosperity gospel, if you preach anything else but Christ crucified, then it is another gospel, it is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  And please understand this Gospel of grace is not a New Testament idea, for Paul tells us in Galatians 3:6-9, “just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’  Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’  So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”

            That is exactly what Paul is saying here in Romans 1:16 – that salvation is given to all who believe.  The Greek word for “believe” is PISTEUO and it speaks of being “committed to (my) trust.” The idea is that believing is manifested in our daily living, it shows our faith that we are saved, it doesn’t save us. We are living what we believe. It is as Paul said in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  You see, salvation is not just professing you are a Christian, anyone can do that, salvation is believing that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, you are saved by grace, through faith, and it is totally a gift of God, not of works!  Thus, that is what we need to bring to people, the true Gospel message, the Good News of Jesus Christ and His atoning work on the cross of Calvary, the forgiveness of our sins that is only found in Him.

            And Paul concludes by saying in Romans 1:17, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” Or as The Living Bible puts it, “This Good News tells us that God makes us ready for heaven-makes us right in God's sight-when we put our faith and trust in Christ to save us. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scripture says it, ‘The man who finds life will find it through trusting God.’”   You see, as we live, day by day, the righteousness of God flows into our lives and we are not only saved by faith, but we live by faith, not by works!

            With the remainder of our time this morning I would like to look at several areas regarding the Gospel that we can learn from, apply to our lives.

1.  DON’T DEVIATE FROM THE TRUTH – GALATIANS 1:6-7

            By adding to the Gospel you only cheapen it, you don’t make it richer or better.  What Christ has done for us is the ultimate; it can’t get any better than that.  Imagine, a holy and righteous God who took on a body of flesh to dwell among us with the purpose of dying on the cross of Calvary to pay in full the penalty of our sins so we can become the righteousness of God in Him – how can you improve on that?  You can’t!

2.  DON’T BE ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST – II TIMOTHY 1:7-10

            We can become fearful at times because we don’t like to fail but let me say this, the only time we fail is when we don’t walk by faith, and we don’t step forward.  God’s Word is living and powerful and nothing can stop it from accomplishing that which it is sent to do except the person who is hearing it; they can harden their hearts to it.  If you are ashamed of the message, why is that?  It gives life to the dead, spiritually speaking, and folks, that eternal life with Jesus is nothing to be ashamed of.

3.  CONTEND EARNESTLY FOR THE GOSPEL MESSAGE –

      JUDE 3-4, PHILIPPIANS 1:17, 27-30

            I believe we are living in the days in which we must earnestly contend for the faith that has been entrusted to us because it has been perverted by so many people.  The Gospel is non-negotiable; it can’t be watered down or changed. If it is changed, then the power of God to save you is lost.  Thus, don’t change it, and when you share it, share all of it for it is dynamite power to bring people to that saving faith in Jesus!

4.  WE MUST SACRIFICE FOR IT – MARK 8:35

            As you share your faith, the Gospel message, it will cost you something.  Some times it will cost you your friends, maybe that promotion, so you need to count the cost, be ready for what may come your way as you share, but don’t let it stop you!  You see, the loss of those things is nothing when you compare it with what God has for you – be faithful!  And what a joy it will be when you are gathered together with those who have received the Gospel message you have shared with them!

5.  THE CONSEQUENCES FOR NOT BELIEVING –

      II THESSALONIANS 1:8-10

            If a person rejects the Gospel, there are consequences that will come upon them – God’s wrath will be poured out upon them, they will be eternally separated from God in the Lake of Fire where the worm does not die nor is the fire quenched!  Some would argue “That is so unloving!”  I disagree, it is unloving not to tell the person the truth and let them go to Hell feeling good about it!

            Here in Romans 1:16-17 Paul speaks of the just living by faith and then in Romans 1:18-3:20 he speaks of God’s condemnation upon a Christ rejecting world.  Paul shows how the whole world is guilty before God, that “. . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Romans 3:23.  But the Good News is that Jesus Christ has come to set us free from sin and death if we would only believe and receive Him into our lives!

As I begin to close this morning, let me share with you this story, it goes like this:

            We had dinner one evening with someone who interestingly enough had worked for a time with a magician, an illusionist. He told us, “You know, on the surface these things an illusionist does look very complicated.  They saw women in two and they put the legs over here and head over there. You sit there in the audience and you think, ‘Oh, how in the world can that happen?  She didn’t even scream.  She’s over there and she’s over here – ten feet apart.  How could it be?’”  Then he said,” You know, when you’re on the inside and you work with an illusionist, it is so simple.  So simple!  Once you have it explained to you, there’s nothing to it. But the audience is amazed.”

            Salvation is like that.  It seems incomprehensible how the sacrifice of one Man can secure the eternal salvation of all men who will believe – until you have it explained and see it with the eyes of faith.

                                                - Charles Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart, p. 505

            Folks, it is as Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’”  In a world of bad news, let the glorious light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News, shine brightly, for it is the only thing that can change, transform lives that were dead in sin and bring them back to life. Explain it to people, don’t negate it or change it.  Remember in our opening story this morning that said, “Oh, the lives eternally wrecked by the yellow gospels of the day – the bloodless theories of unregenerate men that send their hearers to their doom instead of stopping them on their downward road!”  Proclaim the Good News; the Gospel of Jesus Christ for it is power, the power of God to save people’s lives for all who believe!  What a glorious promise that is, may we believe it and bring it to people!