Power
The Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation
The
Gospel
Paul says the Gospel
has power
The Gospel is the
power of God for the salvation of everyone
Everyone needs to be
saved
Everyone is a sinner
Human
nature always lust and boast
Like
telling how big of a fish you caught
God’s
divine nature cannot lie
The
righteous fisherman keeps a deliar (a scale an tape measure)
The
Gospel is the deliar
The
Gospel reveals the righteousness of God
The
only standard for life and living
The Gospel is the
Power of God for Salvation
Paul says the Gospel has power.
The Gospel is the power of God
for the salvation of everyone.
Everyone needs to be saved.
Everyone is a sinner.
Paul describes where sin
comes from and its outcome.
Sin starts with denying God.
It is not like God’s existence is hard to see.
For since the creation
of the world God's invisible qualities
— his eternal power
and divine nature
— have been clearly seen, being understood
from what
has been made, so that
men are without excuse.
Romans 1:20
God’s “eternal power”…
The power of no beginning and no
end may be hard to comprehend.
Although hard to comprehend, just a quick
look around from any place on earth reveals the
amazing creation of the heavens and the earth.
There have been many creators who have used
the things God has made, but none have lasted
the test of time like the heavens and the earth.
The order and quality of the heavens
and the earth are incomprehensible.
Although some give credit to evolution and chance…
Only an eternal God as Creator makes sense.
In the earth, the evidence of human nature is clear.
People struggle with what is right
and natural so they make sin acceptable.
Lust causes a battle in the mind,
it takes discipline
to control it.
Because it is so hard to control, we
bring it out into the open and find
others with the same struggles with lust.
The human nature’s answer is bring it
out into the open and make it acceptable
based on what we have in common.
Example…
God made male and female that is very obvious.
People have tried to
populate other ideas
in order to make their lust
acceptable.
This brings up the idea of
reasoning.
God not only has eternal
power,
but divine nature.
The thoughts of God are
righteous.
God has spoken His thoughts
of
righteousness to us from
the beginning.
Righteousness is doing it
right.
It is very clear that when
you do
something right you don’t
have to do it over.
When you do something
right you get positive
results.
All of us hate to be wrong.
Why? Because doing it wrong
has painful consequences.
God’s divine nature is
right…
It is true.
Human nature is willing to
accept substandard.
Doing it right takes time,
energy and resources.
Human nature wants to cut
the corners and compromise.
There is a clear difference
between
God’s nature and human
nature.
All that I have said so far
does not need a Bible to
prove.
The evidence is in our
history.
The proof is in the
problems we have created.
Look at how far people go to justify their
action.
Why is there so many weird
and
unbelievable things people
think?
Because God has given
people
over to their own thinking.
Although it is painful to
watch insanity, it has
been a very powerful tool
to bring people to God.
When people realize the way
they are going
leads to a dead end, many
cry out to God.
Paul says the Gospel is righteousness,
it only accepts what is
right and true.
It is like a ruler, 12
inches…
It is 12 inches no matter how big
you say the fish you caught
is.
Righteous fisherman have
a deliar in their tackle
box.
A deliar is a scale and tape measure.
Paul says it this way…
For in the gospel a
righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith
from first
to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by
faith."
Romans 1:17
God is the revealer of
righteousness…
From beginning to end.
The problem is we want
something
other than righteousness in
the middle.
Making a wrong turn
anywhere
on your trip will cost you.
It will delay or take you
off track completely.
Because we want our own
righteousness,
our own standard, we rebel
against
the truth and those who
teach it.
This is why Paul says…
“I am not ashamed of
the gospel”
All the ridicule, hatred, persecution
did not make Paul ashamed.
Why?
Because the Gospel is
the only power of salvation.
Human nature must change.
Let God be true and every man a liar.
Scripture Reading
Romans 1:16-32 NIV
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power
of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for
the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a
righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written:
"The righteous will live by faith."
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against
all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their
wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God
has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's
invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly
seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as
God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish
hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal
man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of
their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one
another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served
created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.
Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same
way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with
lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received
in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to
retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what
ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness,
evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and
malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and
boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they
are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they know God's
righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only
continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
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