“THE REVELATION OF THE GOSPEL” - Sermon Outlines. Org



“THE REVELATION OF THE GOSPEL”

ROMANS 1:16-18

INTRO: The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 tells us what the Gospel is:

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I have

preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand:

By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto

you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all

that which I also received, how 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.” The GOSPEL is a powerful

message! What is said about Christ Jesus has not, can not, or will

not ever be said of any other man! "The Gospel is the greatest story

ever told, about the greatest offer ever made, by the greatest person

who ever lived."- D. J. Kennedy. Jerry Noble said, “Religion is man-

made; the Gospel is God-given. Religion is what man does for God;

the Gospel is what God does for man. Religion is good views; the

Gospel is good news. Religion ends in outer reformation; the Gospel

ends in inner transformation. Religion often becomes a farce; the

Gospel is always a force—the power of God unto salvation” (1).

In Romans 1:16-17, Paul wrote: “for I am not ashamed of the gospel

of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that

believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the

righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The

just shall live by faith.” There is a very interesting word in v17. That

word is Revealed. In the Greek, the word means “to take the cover off,

to disclose.” The Gospel uncovers and reveals some things that are

otherwise hidden from view. I’d like to speak this morning on “The

Revelation of The Gospel.” Let us see four things the Gospel reveals:

(1) THE GOSPEL REVEALS THE POWER OF GOD

ROMANS 1:16—“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it

is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;

to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

*We can see the power of God revealed in many places and many ways.

But there is no other place that so vividly reveals God’s great power as the

Gospel does! To create this world and the life contained thereon, God

simply spoke and it was done. In Genesis 1, the words “And God said,”

appear 9 times. After these utterances of God we see the words, “And it

was so.” God spoke and it was done. But there was so much more that

was involved when God sent His Son into the world. God’s power was

seen as never before!

*Notice the words in v16—“the power of God…”. The word Power in the

Greek means “miraculous power, force, ability, might, strength.” The

Greek word is dunamis and from it we get our English word dynamite.

The Gospel is the dynamite of God! It is the only force that can break

the power of sin and set men free! Notice two things about God’s glorious

power:

A. GOD’S POWER HAS NO LIMITS. The power of God is not bound nor

can it be bound. God is sovereign which simply means that God can do

what He wills when He wills. He doesn’t have to answer to anyone!

ILLUS: John MacArthur in his commentary on Romans writes:

Scripture certainly testifies to God’s glorious power (Ex.

15:6), His irresistible power ( Deut. 32:39 ), His unsearchable

power ( Job 5:9 ), His mighty power ( Job 9:4 ), His great power (

Ps. 79:11 ), His incomparable power ( Ps. 89:8 ), His strong

power ( Ps. 89:13 ), His everlasting power ( Isa. 26:4 ), His

effectual power ( Isa. 43:13 ), and His sovereign power ( Rom.

9:21 ). Jeremiah declared of God, “It is He who made the earth

by His power, who established the world by His wisdom” ( Jer.

10:12 ), and through that prophet the Lord said of Himself, “I

have made the earth, the men and the beasts which are on the

face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched

arm” ( Jer. 27:5 ). The psalmist admonished, “Let all the earth

fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of

Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it

stood fast” ( Ps. 33:8-9 ). His is the power that can save. (The

MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Romans).

As the Lord asked Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18:14—“Is any thing

too hard for the LORD?” The answer is NO! His power has no limits!

ILLUS: No American will ever forget the events of September 11, 2001.

On that fateful day, the United States Pentagon and New York’s

World Trade Center was bombed by terrorists. As one reflects

back to that day, the phrase Americans used most often to

describe what they saw was, “I can’t believe it!” Who would ever

have believed we would see a day like that unforgettable

Tuesday. The view of those two towers crumbling to the ground

is a picture most every American can replay in their mind; and

when we do, the same reoccurring thought comes forth, “I can’t

believe this really happened.” What we witnessed was indeed

“unbelievable,” but what God is always able to do is even more

unbelievable. To make this truth come alive, just rewind the

events of that Tuesday and relive those emotions. When you

first saw the two towers burning and realized it was the result of

terrorists flying suicide missions with hijacked commercial jets,

you no doubt muttered, “This is unbelievable!” It was horrible,

but you never dreamed those building would collapse. When

they went down it was beyond belief. By calling up those

emotions, you have a definite handle on that which is truly

unbelievable. Now apply that same sense of complete unbelief

Romans 8:28. God specializes in unbelievable results and is

able to completely redeem any situation so that we are left

enthusiastically exclaiming, “Unbelievable!” (2).

B. GOD’S POWER HAS NO LAWS. Mankind is governed by laws. Our

lives are governed by the laws of nature. But God is Almighty therefore

His power is not governed by laws. God by-passed the laws of nature

when Jesus was born. Matthew 1:20-23 tells us, “But while he thought

on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a

dream saying, Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy

wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall

bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his

people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled

which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, Behold, a virgin shall

be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name

Immanuel, which is being interpreted is, God with us.” Liberals, agnostics,

and infidels call Jesus’ birth a biological contradiction, and truly it is.

But does that really matter? God doesn’t have to pay any attention to

biology or any other kind of ology, He is God! He is not bound by the

laws of nature!

God set aside the laws of man when He raised Jesus from the dead. In

Matthew 27:66 we read, “So they went, and made the sepulchre sure,

sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” Warren Wiersbe said, “The

Jewish leaders remembered what the disciples forgot: that Christ

promised to come out of the tomb after three days. “Make it as sure as

you can” (v65), was all Pilate could say. But no earthly seal could hinder

Christ from coming out of the tomb as He promised (3). Notice what

Matthew 28:2 tells us, “And, behold, and there was a great earthquake:

for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back

the stone from the door, and sat upon it.” God’s power is not bound by the

laws of man. His will will be done regardless of man. Not only did Jesus’

resurrection prove the sovereignty of God that He is greater than the

powers that be but it also revealed that He is greater than Satan and all

the spiritual power of demons and fallen angels. Ephesians 1:18-21

says, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may

know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his

inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power

to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the deed, and set

Him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all

principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is

named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.”

THE GOSPEL REVEALS THE POWER OF GOD, it has NO LIMITS and it has NO LAWS, but also note:

(2) THE GOSPEL REVEALS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

ROMANS 1:17—“For therein is the righteousness of God revealed

from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

*What do we mean when we speak of the Righteousness of God? John

Wesley said, “This expression sometimes means God's eternal, essential

righteousness, which includes both justice and mercy, and is eminently

shown in condemning sin, and yet justifying the sinner. Sometimes it

means that righteousness by which a man, through the gift of God, is

made and is righteous; and that, both by receiving Christ through faith,

and by a conformity to the essential righteousness of God.” (John Wesley’s

Explanatory Notes).

*Righteousness is “conformity to all that He commands or appoints. It is

God’s uprightness or standard, to which man is expected to conform.

God’s righteousness is imputed or imparted as a gift to man and not

earned. It results in God’s act of justification by faith through Christ.

Man can only accept the claims of God upon his life as he repents of his

sin and receives Christ as his Saviour by faith, and thus becomes a child

of God, realizing God’s claims upon him by the miraculous regenerating

action of the Holy Spirit” (4).

*Note two things that the Gospel reveals about the Righteousness of God:

A. GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS DEMANDS HOLINESS. I am not sure if

any one of God’s attributes are greater than another. But if so, the

one greater than all would have to be His RIGHTEOUSNESS. All

throughout the Scriptures, God declares Himself to be Holy. Moses

said of God in Exodus 15:11—“Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among

the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing

wonders?” The obvious answer is NO ONE!

ILLUS: Philadelphia pastor James Montgomery Boice once spoke to a

discipleship group on the attributes of God. He began by

asking them to list God’s qualities in order of importance.

They put love first, followed by wisdom, power, mercy,

omniscience, and truth. At the end of the list they put

holiness.

“That did surprise me,” Boice later wrote, “because the Bible

refers to God’s holiness more than any other attribute.”

The Bible doesn’t generally refer to God as Loving, Loving,

Loving! Or Wise, Wise, Wise! Or Omniscient, Omniscient,

Omniscient! But over and over we read the cry of the angels,

Holy, Holy, Holy! (5).

Not only does God Righteousness demand His Holiness, but it also

demands holiness in those who are His! 1 Peter 1:15-16 declares,

“But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of

conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.” “Holiness

does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervors, or un-

commanded austerities; it consists in thinking as God thinks and

willing as God wills”—John Brown, Expository Discourses on 1 Peter. In

his book, Loving God, Chuck Colson said, “Holiness is the everyday

business of every Christian. It evidences itself in the decisions we

make and things we do, hour by hour, day by day” (6).

The GOSPEL REVEALS that God’s Righteousness demand Holiness, and also…

B. GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS DEMANDS HATRED OF SIN. In The Word

of God, God declares Himself to be Holy and also He declares for us His

great hatred of sin! But I want you to see that no where do we see

more clearly how much Holy God hates sin than is revealed for us in

the Gospel. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, “For he hath made him to be

sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of

God in him.” God cannot be a HOLY GOD and “wink” at sin. Nor can

His Holiness allow sin to go unchecked and unpunished. Have you

ever wondered why God turned His back on His Son while He hang

dying on the Cross? I’ll tell you why: It is because God cannot look

upon sin. His eyes are too holy and pure to look upon it with any

degree of sympathy. He sees it to be sure, but not with any sympathy

whatsoever. Habakkuk 1:13a says of God, “Thou art of purer eyes than

to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity…” God despises sin, but

loves sinners!

ILLUS: Question: There are three things God cannot do. What are they?

He can't Lie

He can't hate the sinner

He can't love sin

- BETTY MCKNIGHT

God hates sin and loves the sinner and so also should His people. Ian

MacPherson said, “I hate sin when I see what it does to human beings.

I hate sin most when I see what it did to Christ! It turned the fairest face

that ever was into a bruised and bloody thing. When sin did that to the

Son of God…how can you ever play with it again? (7).

THE GOSPEL REVEALS THE POWER OF GOD, THE GOSPEL REVEALS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD, and…

(3) THE GOSPEL REVEALS THE WRATH OF GOD

ROMANS 1:18—“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven

against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who

hold the truth in unrighteousness.”

A. THE REASON FOR GOD’S WRATH. Why is God angry at sinful

people? Because even though God is holy and free of evil, and even

though He created people to love Him and give glory to Him, Adam and

Eve rebelled and went their own way. Now all people are sinful. No

one, except Jesus, has ever been able to live perfectly. The holy God,

who is the source of all life and hope, cannot live with sin, which brings

death. He wants to remove sin and restore the sinner—if the sinner

does not push away the truth. But His anger erupts against those who

insist and persist in living a sinful life (8). Notice what John 3:17-20

tells us, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;

but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him

is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already,

because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men

loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every

one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his

deeds should be reproved.”

If you want to know how God feels toward sin go to:

• The angels who fell (2 Peter 2:4).

• The anti-deluvians (Genesis 6:5-6).

• Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24-25, 28; Romans 1:23-28).

B. THE REMEDY FOR GOD’S WRATH. How can the wrath of Holy God

be turned away from sinful man? Only by the Gospel! The first part

of John 3:18 tells us, “He that believeth on him is not condemned..”

Consider what Jesus suffered for you and me so we would not have to

face the wrath of God. (Isaiah 53:36, 10-11; 1 Peter 2:24). And now

by faith in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross we are longer under

the wrath and condemnation of God (Romans 8:1).

ILLUS: "He that obeys not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of

God abideth on him." Oh, the hopelessness of that! Oh, the

horror of it! Oh, the pity of it! - That men should hear the

gospel over and over again, and hear it and turn away to go

out into hopeless eternity! To die without Christ! - John

Ironside

ILLUS: Charles Spurgeon said, “The wrath of God does not end with

death. This is a truth which the preacher cannot mention

without trembling, now without wondering that he does not

tremble more. The eternity of punishment is a thought which

crushes the heart. You have buried the man, but you have not

buried his sins. His sins live and are immortal. They have

gone before him to judgment, or they will follow after him to

bear their witness as to the evil of his heart and rebellion of his

life. The Lord God is slow to anger, but when he is once

aroused to it, as he will be against those who finally reject his

Son, he will put forth all his omnipotence to crush his enemies

(9).

Thank God for Jesus who died that we might live! Praise the Lord for

Redemption by His Blood! As V17 tells us, “For therein is the

righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, The just

shall live by faith.” WHEREIN? THE GOSPEL!!

THE GOSPEL REVEALS THE POWER OF GOD, THE GOSPEL REVEALS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD, THE GOSPEL REVEALS THE WRATH OF GOD, and finally…

(4) THE GOSPEL REVEALS THE LOVE OF GOD

JOHN 3:16—“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only

begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not

perish, but have everlasting life.”

ROMANS 5:8—“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that,

while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 JOHN 4:10—“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he

loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

A. THE LOVE OF GOD ANSWERS THE CALL FOR DIVINE JUSTICE.

God’s law had been broken and punishment was required by divine

justice. As Romans 6:23a tells us, “For the wages of sin is death..”

God by sending His Son to die in our place answered the call of

divine justice. Hebrews 2:9—“But we see Jesus, who was made a

little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory

and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every

man.”

ILLUS: The story is told of two brothers who were almost identical

twins. One of these brothers committed a crime. As the

sheriff came to arrest the criminal, the innocent one told his

brother to go hide someplace and he took his place. He went

to prison in the place of his brother.

That is what Jesus did for us. Oliver B. Greene in his commentary on

The epistles of John speaking of 1 John 4:10 wrote: “Herein is love”—

that is, God sending His only Son into the world to die for His enemies,

that we who deserve death and hell might have life. Because of the

sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son, His love is manifested in the

things that He has done, is doing, and will do for those who trust in

Jesus (10).

B. THE LOVE OF GOD AWAKENS US TO THE COMPASSION OF DIVINE

GRACE. Hebrews 2:9 says, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little

lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and

honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

The Gospel is a divine revelation of the Love of God bestowed to

mankind by grace. Had it not been for God’s grace, we would not have

John 3:16. The grace of God brought the love of God down to man; the

grace of God caused God the Father to turn His head, and, in a figure,

close His eyes when Jesus cried out, “My God! My God! Why hast thou

forsaken me?” The grace of God brought Jesus down to man. God sent

forth Jesus to be a propitiation through faith in His blood (Rom. 3:24-

28). By the grace of God, He allowed Jesus to taste death for every

man…Before the world was, before Adam was, before sin entered the

earth, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit agreed that

the Lamb without spot or blemish would be made sin for us, that we

through His death might be made righteous” (11).

ILLUS: On January 24, 2000, Goshawk Syndicate filed a suit against

Buena Vista Entertainment, Inc. to end its contract for under-

writing the prize money on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The

London-based insurance company said the show was paying

out too much prize money. Basing their profit margins on the

original British version of the show where nobody has ever won

the big prize, Goshawk said the questions are too easy and too

many people winning large sums of money. They’ve declared a

breech of contract with ABC’s top-rated show that frequently

attracted 30 millions viewers a night. Are you glad God doesn’t

work like underwriters? He never gripes about too much grace

being given out, and never asks His followers to tighten up the

entrance exam. He simply offers grace to all who want it (12).

Thank the Lord that “..where sin abounded, grace did much more

abound” (Romans 5:20).

CLOSING: THE GOSPEL REVEALS THE POWER OF GOD, THE GOSPEL

REVEALS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD, THE GOSPEL

REVEALS THE WRATH OF GOD, and THE GOSPEL REVEALS

THE LOVE OF GOD.

Periodically, organized religion seems to come up with a new

absurdity. One of the latest theological fads is that we must make

the Gospel relevant. That, my friend, is a lot of baloney. It is not

our job to make the Gospel relevant. Our task is to preach the

Gospel so people can understand it. The Holy Spirit is the one who

makes it relevant. Times change, but people do not change. We

have a hundred new fangled names for sin, but sin is still sin. The

wages of sin are still death. The Gospel is God’s remedy for sin!

Let us say with Paul, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:

for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;

to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

NOTES: 1. Albert M. Wells, Jr. Inspiring Quotations-Contemporary &

Classical. p. 82.

2. Raymond McHenry. In Other Words. Volume 11. Issue 3. Fall

2001. p. 5.

3. Warren W. Wiersbe. Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines On The New

Testament. p. 98.

4. Spiro Zodhiates. The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible. p. 1681.

5. Robert J. Morgan. Nelson’s Complete Book of Stories, Illustrations

& Quotes. p. 373.

6. Charles R. Swindoll. The Tale of The Tardy Oxcart and 1,501

Other Stories. p. 269.

7. Wells. p. 187.

8. Living Letters From The Life Application Bible. p. 14.

9. Charles H. Spurgeon. 2200 Quotations From The Writing of

Charles H. Spurgeon. pp. 224-225.

10. Oliver B. Greene. The Epistles of John. p. 160.

11. Oliver B. Greene. The Epistle of Paul The Apostle To The Hebrews.

p. 71.

12. Raymond McHenry. In Other Words. Volume 10. Issue 2. Spring

2000. pp. 3-4.

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