The Gathering Surf City

Hey, what a great day.

Cool that we get to hang out this morning
together and continue our

journey through the Book of Romans,

the letter to the Roman Church.

And I'm excited.

These are the two verses that we dealt
with about four weeks ago.

We've kind of already been
through the two verses,

but today I want to kind of put them
in the context of where Paul is.

And essentially,

I titled the message,

I've got some good news.

You know,

good news is that thing that you
don't hesitate to share,

you know,

I mean,

when you've got good news,

you want everybody to know it.

I mean,

I think in my own life,

you know,

going back sometime,

you know,

back in November when
Ezekiel was born.

Hey, yeah,

the baby's born.

Yay.

Been waiting all this time,

you know,

you let people know the good things,

right? You want to share
some good news.

And so these two verses,

I want to read,

and we'll pray,

and then we'll proceed.

Here we go.

For I am not ashamed of the Gospel,

for it's the power of God for salvation
to everyone who believes,

to the Jew first and
also to the Greek.

For in it,

the righteousness of God is revealed
from faith to faith as it is

written. But the righteous
man shall live by faith.

All right,

let's pray.

God, we do thank you for your word.

And thank you,

God, that you have spoken and
revealed yourself to us.

And so,

God, as we consider just
these two verses,

again, God help us to recognize,

God, that which you want us
to know first about you,

God, what is it you're revealing about
yourself in these two verses?

And then,

God, what is it that we need to see in
ourselves about these two verses?

God, help us to understand that
which you want us to know.

And then,

God, help us to submit,

surrender, bow before you,

God, and to be the people that
you've called us to be.

And we pray it in Jesus's name.

Amen. All right.

What are you proud of?

Obviously, I mentioned my grandson,

right? You know,

people ask me,

how's the baby?

Well, first thing I do is pull
out the latest picture,

and I carry them all
in my phone now,

right? I mean,

that's what we do.

We got pictures,

so we're proud of that
sort of thing.

And see,

Hannah's down here in front.

Say, I'm going to show her this.

Thank you.

You gave me my illustration
this morning.

How about that?

See, this is purple and orange.

It's a tiger paw representing
Clemson Tigers.

Right? And Hannah made it for me.

I Typically,

when people ask me about Colleges.

I've always been.

Been a Clemson fan since I
was about 8 years old,

actually before that,

because that's where my
uncle went to school.

So I pulled for Clemson.

Right. I'm proud.

Some years,

I'm prouder than other years.

Just so you know.

Right. So what are the kind of
things that you're proud of?

So as we consider these two verses,

I want you to think about that.

I want to think about the things
that you readily share,

the things that you don't hesitate
to tell people about yourself,

to tell people regarding
things that you know,

things that you've experienced,

things that are a part
of who you are.

Okay, see,

In Romans,

chapter 1,

verses 1 to 15,

here's what we hear.

Paul introduces himself.

He starts out by simply saying,

I am a servant,

a slave of Christ Jesus.

That's the first thing Paul wants us
to know about him in this letter to

the Romans.

Right? It's the first thing
he wants to say to them.

Then he says,

called as an apostle and set apart
for the gospel of God.

And we'll come back to
that in a minute.

And so what he's doing
in this letter,

this epistle to Roman Christians
and the congregations that meet

throughout Rome in the surrounding area
is he's introducing himself and

he's letting them know that these
are the things that are the most

important things you
can know about me.

This. Can I go ahead and say it?

This is what I'm proud of,

is what Paul's saying.

This is who I am.

This is me.

Right? So he's letting them know.

Now, the church at Rome,

we know it was more likely house churches
and scattered throughout Rome

and the Roman countryside
probably by that time,

because the book,

the Letter to the Romans,

was written probably somewhere
between 55 and 57.

Most scholars say it was written
probably from Corinth.

Some scholars even go so
far as to say that.

Phoebe, now,

here you go.

Get ready for this.

Who was a deacon.

Now, I wrote this down.

She was a deacon at Censria.

All right?

And she is probably the one who delivered
the letter to the Roman

congregations.

All right?

So you get this picture that Paul is
pretty purposely intentionally

sending this letter for a reason
and introducing himself.

More than likely,

some of them know who Paul
is or who Saul was.

Many of them probably have heard
the reputation of the man,

right? And so he's telling them the most
important things about himself

that he wants them to know.

All right?

And so my question comes back to.

All right,

the Bible is given to us by
inspiration of the Spirit.

Of God.

God's the one who has given
this for our understanding.

And then I ask the question,

our understanding of what?

How important is it for
you to know Paul?

I mean,

you go shake his hand someday,

well, maybe,

but I mean in the daily life,

walking down the street,

going to the McDonald's,

which I did this week,

rarely anyway,

going wherever you are,

how important is it for
you to tell people,

I know the apostle Paul?

They go,

really? I thought he died
quite a quite time ago.

Well, I know him by description.

I know him by study and education.

I know him by what he has
said about himself.

Well, how important is that?

Can I just go ahead and say,

eh, not so much,

you know,

it's not the priority.

It's not the number one thing.

I go up to people,

hey guys,

I know Paul,

right? That's not the first thing,

right? All right,

so what in the text of the
letter to the Romans,

what in the first chapter,

what in these two verses does God
want us to know about him?

What is it Paul is inspired to
write down so that we have an

understanding about God himself?

That's where we're going to.

So here you go.

What do we need to know about God?

And then what do we need
to know about Paul?

Alright, so here's what we
need to know about Paul.

We need to know what
Paul's priority is.

Because if God has revealed in Paul's
life what is Paul's priority,

there's a distinct possibility that
it should also be important to us,

right? Something about Paul's life might
ought to be important to us.

Okay? That's why these two verses.

When I shared this four weeks ago,

I told you these two verses in my mind
hold the thesis for the whole

letter. These two verses
kind of tell us,

all right,

here's where we're going.

Here's what we need to
pay attention to.

Here's what we need to understand.

All right,

so what's Paul's priority?

Paul's priority is,

look, I'm sold out,

surrendered, sacrificed
to Christ Jesus.

Paul is an apostle set apart
for the Gospel of God.

All right,

so here you go.

The point of the book to
the Roman congregation,

the churches in Rome is the gospel.

It's the good news.

We're going to go through this and we're
going to study salvation and

we're going to study justification and
we're going to see why those are

necessary things for the world,

but why they are identifying sort of
singularly the things that the

people of God need to know
and understand salvation.

I Mean,

think about it.

I want to be saved,

right? Justification.

How am I saved?

How is it that God makes a stinker
like Bobby Owings?

Okay, how does God make
him righteous?

What does justification mean?

What is that?

That transition that
God accomplishes?

Because I promise you,

I can't do it.

I can't accomplish that.

So that's where this is all going.

So the gospel of God,

which we see in verse one,

he says,

I'm set apart for the gospel of God.

Remember we looked at that word,

gospel, that it means good news or
good tidings or God's good story,

the story of God's goodness.

The news that God is proclaiming
to the world.

What is that news?

Well, that news is his.

It says right here,

you ready For I am not ashamed
of the good news,

the gospel for it's the power
of God for salvation.

Alright, so we've got
this bold gospel.

He also mentions in verse nine.

If you look back at verse nine,

he says,

God is my witness,

whom I serve with my spirit.

And telling the good news.

Right? What's the good news?

Yeah, See,

the good news is the work
of God in Christ Jesus.

That's the good news.

That's what everybody needs
to know and to hear.

To be honest with you,

nobody needs to know about Clemson,

right? Nobody really needs to know that
the Quarter Pounder with bacon

tastes different than it used to.

I found that out yesterday.

Just so y'all know.

Don't know what they did to it.

I think a few people need to
know about my grandson,

but everybody that I encounter
needs to know the gospel,

the good news of Jesus Christ.

Everybody.

I don't care where I run into them.

I don't care how.

What are the circumstances
that I run into them.

Everybody needs to know about Jesus.

Now granted,

we live in,

you know,

the Southeast.

Most people have heard,

however, I run into some who haven't
had a great conversation this week

with somebody just kind of out
of the blue about faith.

Kind of.

We started out really generally about
faith and then we sort of narrowed

it down.

What I do.

Okay, thank you.

He's got the sound board
in his hand.

I don't know what I've done.

But you narrow it down
from faith to what?

To faith in what?

You see what I mean?

Because we live in a world where there's
a whole lot of faith in a whole

lot of things.

So what is there that has proven
for us to have faith in?

Can I just be honest?

Can you have faith in Clemson?

Right.

Don't want to have a lot
of faith in McDonald's.

Just kidding.

I don't mind McDonald's.

I just don't eat it
very much anymore.

But as I look at this,

the gospel,

he says,

I am not ashamed of the gospel.

Can you flip that sentence
around and hear Paul say,

I am proud of the good
news of Jesus Christ?

Because like I read to you last
week or the week before,

whenever it was on the
road to Damascus,

in Acts 22,

Paul gives the testimony of God threw
me to the ground and changed me,

changed my life,

changed my priorities,

changed my agenda,

changed who I am.

And I am proud of what God
has done in my life.

See, that now,

I am admittedly.

I said it a minute ago.

I am admittedly a stinker,

okay? I have been.

And yet God has changed who I am.

You know,

I've told y'all before,

if Bobby shows up,

it's a bad day.

But if Bobby shows up and
it looks like Jesus,

it could go all right.

See what I mean?

My point is,

is that God changes who we are.

It changes our whole.

Not just priorities and agendas,

but it's fundamental to our identity
that when we encounter others,

the priority of our sharing ourselves
with other people is Jesus.

And so when we look at it,

verse 15 uses the word gospel,

too, says,

so I am eager to.

To preach the gospel to you
also who are in Rome.

So the story is already,

you know,

Paul has already been traveling
all around the Aegean Sea,

sharing the gospel,

all these little villages and
towns and areas and regions,

and he's gone all over the place because
of the spirit of God leading

him. Remember Acts 22.

That's what was assigned to him.

What does that mean?

Does that mean that was the area
that was assigned to him?

Was that the town that
was assigned to him?

That. That's why I asked
you a few weeks ago,

what did God assign you?

Did he assign you your home,

your street,

your community,

your workplace,

your what?

What is your assignment?

What is my assignment?

Right. Be honest.

I had an assignment Thursday.

There was a place where I got to
sit with a captive audience,

one person.

But we got to talk about faith,

right? And how the Bible
is really very simple,

right? I mean,

salvation is,

like Nick says,

being a Christian,

simple. It's just not easy.

You see,

the point is that Christ
is our salvation.

And so I used a big word on the second
point in today's message.

Bold gospel.

We're to be bold with the gospel,

the good news of Jesus Christ.

Secondly is salvific power.

How many of you ever heard
the word Salvific before.

Yeah, see,

I didn't.

A couple of you have.

Right. It's a theology word,

Right.

Salvific. Power.

The fact that the gospel reveals to us
the power of God for salvation to

everyone who.

Who believes to the Jew first,

because God sent the gospel to the
Jews first and then to everyone,

and also to the Greek,

all the Gentiles,

and everywhere else.

And Paul being called as an apostle,

as the evangelist to the Gentiles,

to the Roman Empire,

you see?

And so when we see this verse,

Paul is saying in verse 15,

I'm eager to preach the gospel
to you also who are in Rome.

For I am not ashamed of the
good news of Jesus Christ.

Matter of fact,

I am proud of what God accomplished
in my life through Jesus Christ.

See that.

Wow.

What if Christians were as bold.

And I'm not talking about y'all,

because I know y'all are.

Y'all get a pass.

What if Christians were as
bold about the gospel?

They are about other things
in their life.

Right? One of the first things
out of our mouths.

Was Bobby a slave of Jesus Christ.

Was that the first thing out of
my mouth when I meet somebody?

That's what Paul's doing.

Paul's telling us what his first
and utmost priority is.

What are you proud of,

Paul? That God changed my life in
the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

I'm like,

whoa. So that's that.

Salvation. The power of God unto salvation
to everyone who believes.

First to the Jew,

also to the Greek.

And then verse 17 kind
of brings in the.

This is the hint in my mind of what the
next 15 chapters is going to be

about.

For in it,

the righteousness of
God is revealed.

From faith to faith.

Now, we talked about this
four weeks ago.

Faith to faith means we begin in faith
by believing and trusting,

and our faith is meant to grow,

to mature.

You know,

one of my professors in seminary
made the comment.

He said,

you know,

the problem in the church today
is you got a lot of babies.

Got a lot of baby Christians.

They heard the gospel,

received the gospel,

trusted Jesus and stayed
right there.

Infants, Paul calls
it in Corinthians.

He said,

because you're babies,

you can't eat the meat of the word.

You're still sitting around
sucking on a bottle.

Okay, milk.

Milk's a good thing
at the right time,

but you don't stay on milk.

Sometime you got to grow up.

And so.

So when we look at this thing,

it's like,

all right,

wow. For in it,

the righteousness of
God is revealed.

From faith to faith.

The righteousness of God.

The righteousness of God
is not in question.

Okay? God is righteous.

God has been righteous.

God will always be righteous.

God is not going to be unrighteous
in any way.

So how is it that God is revealing
his righteousness?

This is what's cool
about the gospel,

because God has chosen
to make us righteous.

You can't do it.

You can't earn it.

You can't accomplish it.

It is an imputed or imparted.

It's a righteousness that Christ accomplished
that God gives to us.

Right? Whoa.

I don't deserve that.

You know God's answer when you
say something like that.

I know.

We didn't deserve it.

And yet God loves us that much.

See that?

For in it,

the righteousness of God is revealed
from faith to faith as it is

written. But the righteous
man shall live by faith.

Now, this is the.

I say,

this is the NAS77 version.

So. And many other versions
use the same wording.

But some of them say,

but my righteous one
shall live by faith.

All right,

so you got to go back to Habakkuk,

chapter 2,

verse 4,

to find that phrase that he's
quoting right there.

And Habakkuk is the prophet at a time
when Babylon is about to be the

means of God's judgment
against Judah,

God's people in Judah.

Babylon is about to be God's means
of judgment against Judah.

And Habakkuk,

and I marked it.

Here you go.

Habakkuk's talking to
God in chapter one.

Habakkuk prays,

God answers.

Habakkuk prays,

God answers.

Habakkuk in chapter two is waiting
for God to respond.

And it says,

the Lord answered me.

Write down this vision clearly,

inscribe it on tablets so
one may easily read it.

For the vision is yet for
the appointed time,

it testifies about the
end and will not lie.

Though it delays,

wait for it,

since it will certainly
come and not be late.

Look, his ego is inflated.

Now, understand,

prophets speak now and for later.

Whose ego is he talking about?

Now he's talking about Babylon,

but he's also talking
about God's people.

See, God's people have put their faith
in something other than God

himself. They're worshiping their,

quote, religion,

right? I like to call
it their name tag.

It was Judah's own churchianity
that they were worshiping.

And so because they've wandered
from worshiping God,

Babylon's coming in as judge.

And he's also talking about,

look, his ego is inflated.

He is without integrity.

And then the quote comes in,

but the righteous one
will live by faith.

Wow, I looked at that.

Okay, what are you proud of?

Go back and read that.

Look, his ego is inflated.

Look at the world around us.

A lot of pride being tossed
around in the world,

isn't it?

These pride groups,

they get hashtags and parades and
all kind of stuff these days.

What are you proud of?

Yeah, if y'all think
that was offensive,

wait till next week's passage.

We're going to get into the world
in sin here in a few minutes.

But you see,

he's talking both about
the pride of Babylon.

He's talking about the pride of God's
own people and how God is using the

judgment against pride.

See, Judah,

just after Habakkuk says,

these words is going to fall.

And so when I look at this,

I pulled a quote,

and I don't even know where
I pulled it from.

Forgive me for not giving
the proper whatever.

I'm going to read it to you.

But he whose soul is not right in him
places himself in a fortress or

tower to set himself on high there from
the enemy and does not return to

God nor seek deliverance of him.

But the righteous has no need to place
himself on high in a fortress,

for he shall live by faith.

And that's just a different translation
of the Habakkuk 2.

And I didn't.

I printed this out really quickly a
minute ago because the wording of

Habakkuk 2:4 is the
translating of it.

He whose soul is not right in himself
places himself in a fortress or a

tower, the pride of mankind.

You know,

I'm afraid that what we've taught for
quite a while is that our faith,

our Christianity,

and you've heard me say it before,

is an add on.

This is my life.

This is my identity.

This is my career.

This is my friend group.

These are my hobbies.

These are the things that
I invest myself in,

my faith.

Oh, yeah,

I do that on Sunday morning.

See my point?

When we look at the world around us,

we need to be careful of
what we're proud of,

folks. We need to be careful
of that which we proclaim.

Because I'll go back to
Paul in verse 15.

So I am eager to preach.

I am eager to proclaim the gospel
to you also who are in Rome.

What's your assignment?

Where are you supposed to be
proclaiming the gospel?

Where are you going to live out what
God has accomplished in you?

Because that's what that next
phrase means when it says,

the righteous will live by faith.

Faith is the righteous or just demonstrating
through faithful living.

See, so I was listening.

One of the last things I do to get ready
on Sunday mornings is Saturdays.

And when I,

when I like I run on
Saturday mornings.

I ran four miles yesterday morning.

So one of the things I did was
listen to another preacher.

I like listening to other
preachers sometimes.

So I was listening to a guy yesterday
and the question he asked,

it was an odd question,

but the question he asked and it was
kind of going back to Paul's story.

You know,

Paul was beaten,

Paul was stoned,

Paul was shipwrecked,

Paul was left for dead.

And so as he was sharing
Paul's life story,

he finally got to the
point where he said,

how many times have you been
arrested for the gospel,

right? And yet we worry
about offending.

If I say that,

I might offend somebody.

You know,

religion's a personal
and private thing,

right?

Well, if I say that at my workplace,

I might get fired because religion's
a personal and private thing.

Hmm. We've let our culture squeeze our
faith into being just a component

of our lives.

When our testimony for the gospel
for Christ and what Christ has

accomplished in revealing the righteousness
of God and the righteousness

of God,

which is,

we're going to see,

the righteousness of God is not
just God being righteous,

it's the righteousness of God imparted
and imputed to a lost and sinful

and dying people.

He died in our place.

And God makes us righteous,

man. So see,

I had fun with this.

It's also mentioned In
Hebrews chapter 10,

verse 38,

the righteous will live by faith.

So then you think in scripture,

what's it look like?

Do you know that,

that Abraham's claim to
fame was his faith?

You can say it was,

you know,

him leaving ur.

Why did he leave ur faith?

Why did he leave Haran faith?

Why did he settle the land faith?

See now he had some failures,

obviously.

What would David's claim to fame be?

What did he left the sheep in the field
when Samuel called him to be

king, Right?

He believed he had faith.

Paul on the road to Damascus,

man, He had power,

authority, wealth,

status, prestige.

He was a respected Pharisee.

What does he say in Philippians?

I count it all as garbage,

waste dung if you want
to use King James.

Okay, folks,

what are you proud of?

What do you proclaim?

See, Romans is challenging me.

So guess what?

Every Sunday I get to challenge you.

Alright, what will you do with it?

If you don't know Jesus,

that's where it starts.

And we want you to know Jesus.

We want you to know Jesus.

So if you need to talk to
somebody about that,

find us.

Come down here.

I'll be standing here,

but you can find somebody
in the room,

say, tell me about Jesus,

and they'll tell you about Jesus.

Alrighty.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for today.

Thank you,

God, for your love for us.

God, that it's out of your love that
you reached out with intent and

purpose and design to save us.

But not just to save us,

to transform us.

That our lives would become testimonies
of your righteousness,

imputed, imparted to us,

given out of your love.

God, help us to live faithfully.

God, let our faith be on display.

God, help us to proclaim good
news everywhere we go.

And God,

as we leave today,

as Paul said,

I'm ready to come to Rome
to preach the gospel.

God, as we leave this place,

I'm ready to go to the food line
and preach the gospel.

God, help us to be ready to share
good news wherever we go.

We pray it in Jesus name.

Amen.