“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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