Romans one fourteen I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Babylonians both to the wise and to the unwise so as much as in me is I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone 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, that just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness or ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. My main text is verse sixteen, a very familiar one. But I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth in the Jew, Christ, and also to the Greek. The book of Romans is a very interesting book and a very fundamental book. Some call it the fifth gospel. And I believe that's true. If you want to really get a grasp of what the gospel is, how men are saved and how God can save men righteously, how he can put away all sin and bring an ungodly sinner into perfect eternal standing with himself and still maintain his justice and the righteousness of his throne, the dignity of his character, then read the book of Ruth, because it makes it very plain how God can be just. and still the justifier of the one who will believe in Jesus. The key word of Romans is righteousness. That which is essentially right. And I think about seven times you find it in the book of Romans. If you go right through from chapter one to chapter sixteen, you'll find righteousness is emphasized. First of all, man's need of righteousness, because you have it in verses. or chapters one to three, the need for righteousness by sinful man. Then in the end of chapter three, you'll find this righteousness provided by God. Then you'll find in chapter four, received by faith. This righteousness is received by faith apart from an independent of human work. You find also in chapters five to eight that this righteousness is experienced in the soul of the one who believes. Then you have this righteousness at the close of chapter eight, guaranteed as a permanent blessing. That amazing conclusion to chapter eight that this righteousness once received is a permanent blessing. Now that's very clear in that chapter, the close of chapter eight. Then in chapters nine, ten, and eleven, which is more or less prophetic, you have this righteousness rejected by the Jewish nation, the righteousness of God that came in the person of Jesus Christ, and the Jews said, away with this man will not have him to reign over us. There you have righteousness rejected in chapters nine, ten, and eleven. But then in the rest of the epistle, Chapters twelve to sixteen, you find this righteousness manifested in practical living. Once a person comes into the experimental knowledge of this righteousness, then and only then has he the power to live a practical Christian life. And that's the summary of the whole book of Romans. Also, you'll find in here a number of things about God, right? In chapter one, I've given you a little summary or synopsis of the whole book. But in chapter one, there are some very interesting things. In chapter one, you find the Gospel of God. By the way, the Gospel is mentioned four times in chapter one. The Gospel of God in verse one and the Son of God in verse four. the will of God in verse ten, the power of God in verse sixteen, the righteousness of God in verse seventeen, and the wrath of God in verse eighteen. So you have six things relative to God. Another thing in connection with this chapter, you have the source of the gospel. That very is the source of the gospel. It comes from God. That's where the gospel came from. It comes from God. It speaks of God. It contains God's message. It tells of God's gift. It provides God's guarantees. It is the gospel of God from first to last. He is the author and the finisher of this wonderful message, the gospel. Now getting back to our text, I want to speak first of all upon the need for this gospel. Man's a guilty sinner. He has sinned against God, and you have that very definitely taught in these opening chapters. Man's a guilty sinner before God, and therefore he's under the judgment of God. And this chapter says that man is without exception a sinner. There's no exception. All of sin comes short of the glory of God. No exception. God has no favorites. The wealthy man, the king, the monarch, He doesn't have any inside track to the Almighty. He's a sinner just like the one on the other side of the broad way that leads to destruction. For the Bible says, wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which win there at. One side of the broad way may be the clean footpath. Why that clean path is scrubbed, it's clean, and that's where the religious need self-righteous vote. These people who feel themselves better than others, they walk that clean footpath. Then as the path darkens, you come right across to the other side of the Broadway, and it's black. It's vile. Here's where the lowest of the low walk, those have gone into the depths of sin and sunk into the pits of iniquity, guilty of every sin in the book. And they're on this side, but in between the various shades from white to black, But let me say this. They're all on the broad way that lead us to destruction. Read it in Matthew chapter six. Verses thirteen and one. Why does the gates unbroad as the way, and many there be which do in their act? And this morning there are many very fine individuals, honest and sincere. They don't drink. They don't gamble. They don't swear. Very moral. upright good neighbors, they contribute to society, credit to society. Why they walk their clean foot down. The friends are on the same road as those on the extreme side, the lowest of the load. You say that seems unfair, though. God has concluded all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all. God wants to have mercy on everyone from the darkest to the brightestest part, as men can see. God has concluded all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all. God says, I'll put all on one platform. They're all sinners. They've all sinned against me. They're condemned, but I have a Savior for all. Righteousness for all. Mercy for all. Oh, you say those over there need mercy, and so do those over there. Maybe these people have only sinned once. These have sinned a million times by comparison. But remember that one sin has got to be put away. And the very thought of foolishness is sinned. That one sin has got to be put away. It takes one big leap to sink a ship. Then it takes one sin to keep a soul out of heaven and sign that soul to heaven. And Jesus Christ had to come all the way from the glory to die for that one sin just as much as the sins of this crowd over here with their millions of enemies. God has concluded all in unbelief, all of sin that he might have mercy upon all. The ground around Calvary's cross is level ground. one plateau and they all stand there the whole human race there's no such thing as a front door to heaven for the self-righteous and the good pope and a back door for the drunkards and the harlot to sneak in christ says i am the door there's no such thing as cake for one and crust the bed for another christ is a bed from heaven So that's what this teaches. No exception, no excuse, no escape. Because of this, no exception, all of a sudden, there is no excuse. It tells you that in this very chapter one. They are without excuse, says God, because my salvation is provided for all on the same term. If it were for the wealthy, then the poor couldn't have taken it. This salvation is for all. It's a free gift. Without excuse, says God, no one has an excuse. Everybody has sinned, but there's a savior for everybody. They'll only accept it. And there's no escape. No escape. If you refuse to accept this gospel, that is, without exception, all of sin, and that there is no excuse, no possible argument will be accepted by God, it's this or else. You hear people talk today about their religion, and I say, well, is that according to the Scriptures? Well, I don't know how it's according to the Bible or not, but that's the way I see it. Friend, that doesn't mean that to God. Here's the book, and unless your gospel is according to this book, God will have nothing to do with you. fact the word of God says if an angel from heaven preach any other gospel let him be a curse this is the only gospel and there's no escape for any who will not accept no escape whatsoever if you have the heathen in fact the whole human race is brought into court in this chapter the heathen is brought into court and the so-called civilized man is brought into court and the religious man is brought into court, and he concludes them all sinners, all guilty of war crimes. For instance, the heathen, what did they do? They gave themselves to idolatry. You find that in verses twenty through twenty-three. And you look at the heathen, look at their idols, the most heinous, hateful, horrid-looking things. When missionaries come back and show us pictures of the foreign beings, and show the idols that these heathen worship. You've likely seen many of them, where there are horns and horrid-looking animal faces and features and so on. They seem to be a combination of demons, animals, and men's and whatever, hands. That's their conception of God, these poor heathen with their walked and distorted minds, and that's what they think the great spirit is like. How can they get that conception? All they've got to do is look at creation. And that's what God says, I'll judge the heathen on in the day of judgment. People say, what about the heathen? We don't hear the gospel. God has given them the gospel through creation. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the permanent show of this heavenly work. All the heathen's got to do is look at God's wonderful workmanship, the one who put those mountains there in all their grandeur and glory and majesty. and the beautiful flowers that fill the valleys, the wonderful landscape, and the beautiful beasts that roam the forests. Whoever could conceive that the God who made these days, these beautiful creatures, these beautiful powers, the lovely landscape, and all the glory of His creation, who can receive a God that did all these wonderful things, I mean, all these beautiful things, is like that idol. showing how distorted the mind of the heathening. Instead of taking God's creation as a textbook and saying that all that creation must be a wonderful being, a glorious being, excelling the beauty and the wonders of his own handiwork. Ah, no. Their poor sin-warp mind can see this is what God likes. Horns, fruits, genius-looking features, and so on. God says because of that, I'll tell you. He tells you in verse twenty-four, they're uncleanness. God gave them up for their uncleanness. Verse twenty-six, he gave them up because of their file of affection. And in verse twenty-eight, he gave them up because of their reprobate minds. God gave them up, God gave them up, God gave them up three times. God gave them up because of what they did. Their unclean body. giving their bodies for that which God never intended. And their reprobate minds, their minds are reprobate. And their affections, he says, are vile. Their soul. They have the mind, the soul, and the body all mentioned here. That's how God summarizes the heathen. And you know what goes on in heathen land. Oh, how vile are their affections. how reprobate are their minds how unclean are their bodies but then God says I'll bring the civilized world in on what ground is he going to judge them on conscience God gave to every man a conscience what is the conscience conscience is that inward monitor that tells you what's right and tells you what's wrong but the sad thing is man hasn't the strength or the ability to do what conscience tells him is right, to abstain what conscience tells him is wrong. And yet there are those today who say, well, just go according to your conscience. Let me tell you, unless their conscience is controlled by the Word of God and guided by the Word of God and sanctified by the Word of God, they're in bad shape. Bad shape. God brings a civilized world into court. And it's the same verdict. They're guilty. Then he brings the religious world into court, the Jewish nation. And the Gentiles later on. What do you say about the Jew? He said, I gave you the law. I selected you from all other nations. I made you my peculiar earthly people. I gave you my law. I gave you my statutes. I sent you my prophets. I had a tabernacle built and I dwell in your midst. I performed all kinds of miracles. in the land of Egypt and through the Red Sea and through the wilderness. I showed my power and my glory, my miraculous power. But he said, what did you do? You stoned my prophets. And you would none of my law. You rejected my statutes and my judgments. God says you two are sinners. The heathen are sinners. The civilized world are sinners. The religious world are sinners. God will judge the haven on the basis of creation. He'll judge the civilized world on the basis of conscience. And he'll judge the Jewish nation on the basis of the law. For that very law which said thou shalt not kill, kill the one who gave the law. The Son of God, God manifested flesh. Where do you and I come in? We are guilty with two more counts. For you can look at creation. And you can see the lesson of creation, that there's a great father of creation. Almighty God, how great thou art. Yes, how great he is. Not only so, God's given you a conscience, but you don't follow. You've deadened your conscience. You do a thing once, and your conscience bothers you. But you do it again, and it doesn't bother you quite so much until your conscience is seared with a hot iron. One time you couldn't sleep at night when you did a certain thing. Now you can go to bed not even thinking about it. Conscience is dead. Then the religious world, the Jews, killed the according to violation of the law. Now the gospel is given. The glorious gospel of the grace of God, then this enlightened world has had the gospel. And man rejects that. The Spirit of God came into the world to convict men of sin, the righteousness of judgment, and lead them to Christ and men spiteful of the Holy Spirit. So you are more guilty in this age than any of previous generations of the human race. For today people are seeing the fulfillment of prophecy in a way it's never been seen before. Many things that have come to light in the last days, they're right here that people, fifty years ago, twenty-five years ago, didn't they? You're guilty on the basis of rejecting God as creator, like the heathen. You're guilty of rejecting the voice of conscience. You're guilty of rejecting the testimony of the law. You're guilty of rejecting the offer of salvation, the simple gospel of the grace of God. And you're guilty of resisting and stifling the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. This generation as well will have added to its crime. send now reject the light of prophetic truth fulfilled in their very day and generation. Far better, friend, you've been born in heathen land, that have been born in the day you've been born in and know what you know, that heathen will be lost because he's rejected the light of creation, but his punishment throughout eternity will be mild compared with yours. Greater light! greater responsibility. And what a responsibility is your every time you hear the gospel. And so a man is guilty. The religious world today, just like the Jews, they despise the law. All have sinned. And as verse nineteen says, there it is for him, the law was given that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. All the world is guilty. All guilty. All condemned. Every mouth stopped. God says that all the world becomes silent before us. Think of a criminal coming into court. And he's guilty. But he's got a good mouth. And he tries to say he's not guilty. And he has the nerve and the audacity to try to argue with the judge. judge says, let's hear the witnesses. The witnesses get up. They witness against this man. There's no such thing as circumstantial evidence. He's been seen. The ones who were with him in this sin, who were with him in this crime, they witness. There's all the evidence, undisputed, undeniable evidence of a man's guilty. And yet he chakras away. The judge has to say, if you don't stop, I'll charge you with contempt of court. You're guilty! That kind of a man's going to get a longer sentence, a severe penalty. If he'd have come over and said, I'm guilty, Your Honor. I'm guilty of everything I'm accused of. In fact, I've committed far more than this. These witnesses don't know how. half of my sins are not included in this case and judge I'm guilty I cast myself on the mercy of the court that man will have a lighter sin than a man who tries to talk his way out of a situation he's gunned himself into and he's guilty and he knows it laws given that every mouth may be shut Oh, all the world's guilty before God. Oh, that people that are trying to talk and talk and talk and say, Well, I know I've sinned, but I'm not as bad as so-and-so. And they begin to compare themselves with other folks. I know I may not go to church, but I'm as good as those who do go. And they talk. And they talk about their good deeds. They talk about the things that they do. They think ought to have some recognition by God. Friend, there's no salvation for people like that. It's when a sinner comes and says, God, be merciful to me yourself. I'm guilty. I'm not going to deny it. I'm not going to try and dress myself up. Lord, I'm guilty. If I get what I deserve, I'll be sent straight to hell. Lord, I'm just going to cast myself upon your mercy. I'll cast myself upon your greatness. I'll commit myself to your love. You know what God will do to a sinner like that? He'll forgive him. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's repentance. That is an acknowledgement of your sin. Then David says, I have sinned. The prophet says, God hath put away thy sin. Well, shalt not that. That's the teaching of Romans. guilty before God. The law was given that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God. I've seen people, I've heard people argue religion. You just can't get the first base. They know it all. No matter how much Bible you can give them, they still argue on. A man convinced against his wills of the same opinion still. They live in their own little world of no-all, conceit. self-righteousness that's it instead of bowing low before God and saying oh God I'm a sinner I've lost oh you may not have committed some of the more ugly sins but I'll tell you one sin they're guilty of they're guilty of rejecting Jesus Christ and that's the worst crime in the universe to reject Jesus Christ and not accept him as your Savior and be Lord of your life That's the sin that's going to send people to hell, rejecting Jesus Christ. So there's man's need of the gospel. Then what is the gospel needed? Romans tells you, I've been trying to emphasize it, Christ died for our sins. He died for the ungodly. Christ came into this world not so much to preach the gospel, but that there might be a gospel to preach. In the Old Testament, you have the preparation for this wonderful redemption. There is being prepared in the Old Testament by type and shadow. The Old Testament prepares the ground for this wonderful redemption. And the New Testament, the four Gospels especially, you have a manifestation of this redemption in Jesus Christ. And all four evangelists tell it is death upon the cross. Here's the Gospel. Christ died for our sins. The Acts of the Epistle... gives you the propagation of this redemption. But in the Acts they went everywhere preaching the word. Here is this wonderful redemption, this wonderful provision that God has made for man's deepest need, this wonderful righteousness, this wonderful gospel being propagated in the Acts. And it's explained in the Epistle. That's what this Epistle does. You have the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Gospel manifested. In the Acts, the gospel propagated in the epistle, Romans, Acts, Romans, and the other epistles, this gospel is explained. That's what this does. It explains the gospel, or interprets it, interprets the gospel. And the Book of Revelation is the result. As you sweep on to the Book of Revelation, that caps the New Testament and caps your whole Bible, there you see man in his eternal state after God has destroyed his enemy. the wonderful, glorious new Jerusalem, the new heavens and the new earth were as well as eternal righteousness. That's the result, the ultimate and eternal result of this message of the gospel. All that's not thought about by man's works or man's endeavors, that eternal state. Muhammadanism has nothing to do with it. Shintoism has nothing to do with it. And I care not what religion it is. If it's not Jesus Christ and him crucified, it has contributed nothing to the eternal state. It's all the result of the death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection, and it will be enjoyed and inhabited by all those who have accepted him as Savior and as Lord. That's the result of the gospel. Good news. How wonderful. That's the gospel. Good news. Glad tidings. Salvation apart from law, apart from works, apart from human merit. That's it. That's the gospel. The gospel brings us not a work to do, but a word to believe about a work done. Can you grasp that? The gospel, the way of salvation, does not bring us a work to do for all of sin. It brings us a word to believe. A word about a work done when Jesus said it is finished. The work is done. That's salvation. That's the gospel. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and raised again the third day according to the scriptures. Now the power of the gospel. We've noticed the need of the gospel for what the gospel is, but now the power of it. Yes, the gospel is powerful. It's dynamic. In fact, it comes from the very same Greek root word, dynamite. How powerful, how dynamic is this gospel message? Preachers are wasting their time preaching politics. I got a letter in the mail this week urging me to emphasize from this platform this morning, read it and emphasize it. It's a bond issue. I put it in the waste paper first. I've had other offers, letters sent me from your mayor, chief of ladies, asking that I mention from this platform and do my best to plug it. I have not done so. If it has any political tins, I'm not interested. My ministry is the gospel. I'm not here to preach politics. I'm here to preach Christ. And if everyone would accept Christ, it would straighten out the politics. And that's the trouble. Trying to do away with all these things that they feel the detriment of society, and that's true. But you could do away with all the liquor stores, so not a bottle of liquor could be found in the United States. You could do away with all the dance halls and all the dens of iniquity, all the hot spots and the joints where men sin. You could make it a law that no one was allowed to tell a lie. No one would be found stealing. My house is so society would be cleaned up, and yet that all still be going to hell unless they were born again. It's not cleaning up society by all these rules and regulations and legislation. What men and women need today is Jesus Christ. The only answer to your colored racial problem is Jesus Christ. When men and women come to know Christ and live Christ, learn Christ, that'll straighten out all their social and political problems, but they're not getting at that. That's the only answer, the only solvent, but that's relegated to the back. Man, by his own methods and own efforts, is trying to clean the mass up that he himself is responding to. He can't do it. God alone has the answer. That's the power in the old-fashioned gospel. It breaks hearts. This dynamite that blasts unscriptural theories, blows up men's unscriptural ideas. It smashes hard, stubborn wills. It shatters false hopes. It wrecks man's endeavor to save himself. That's what this gospel does. It's that powerful. How powerful is this message? Missionary spent many years out in New Guinea. He said when he went into that territory as a missionary, the New Guinea area, cannibals. Men thought nothing of eating human flesh, roasting human flesh. Real cannibals. But he said, wherever I went, where there was any semblance of civilization, I found that the gospel had gone in there. And he said, many of our soldier boys shot down during the war, and on their light belts, grass, floating to those shores. He says, wherever they were welcomed and given hospitality, it was where the gospel was. have been preached. Otherwise, killed, and eaten. Wherever the gospel penetrates, ah, what a change. What a change. The power of the gospel that turned cannibals into Christians. Look at the Ark of Enly, who slew, martyred, fine, fine young men, and I knew one of them personally. I knew the father of them very intimately, Theodore McCullough. These five young men went down there to try and penetrate the darkness of those jungles. A darker darkness inhabited the minds and hearts of those off India. And the result was those spears plunged through the bodies of five young men. You know all about them. Now listen, today, after those Indians being in such darkness for centuries, some of those very men who threw those spears are Christians and are missionaries themselves to tell the good news to other Indians and other tribesmen. What did it that gloss would it? And Mr. and Mrs. Elliott, the wife of one of the missionaries, stayed on the job. until she penetrated those hardened evil hearts with the gospel. There's the power of the gospel. Politics didn't do. This peace core thing won't do. There's only one thing that will change even into heaven-bound saints and cannibals into Christians and that Jesus Christ himself. Let me tell you, the few people sitting right here this morning who are not born again Christians, in the sight of God you're a sinner just as much as those men who plunge those spirits in the bodies of those young men. In fact, you're a greater sinner. You've been enlightened by the light of civilization. We wouldn't have the civilization we have today in America if our forefathers didn't believe in the gospel I preached today. Oh, the power of this wonderful gospel message. Do you know something of its power? One time, a preacher was out on the street corner preaching the gospel, and an atheist came up, and he interrupted the speaker who was preaching the gospel, and he challenged them. He said, I'll challenge you to a debate. I'll rent the hall. I'll pay for it. I'll pay for all the advertising. I challenge you to a debate about your gospel. The preacher thought for a minute and he looked at him, the crowd stood with their mouths open. I accept that challenge on one condition, that you bring along with you fifty people who have been blessed to your philosophy. For he said, I'll bring along a hundred who have been blessed to mine. The atheist went away. again. Will you have brought along fifty people who have been blessed through atheists, whose lives have been chained and made happy, whose homes have been reestablished? No. Friend, it would be quite easy for me this morning if I wanted to go to trouble to summon one thousand people and more from our labors in North Carolina and in Georgia. who are ready to stand up and say, I know what Christ is meant to me. He's changed my heart. He's changed my life. Can an atheist do that? No. But I'll tell you the gospel will do it. There's the power of the gospel to change hearts and change lives. Do you want this gospel this morning? What's the purpose of it? says here, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. There is the power. On to salvation. That's the purpose of the gospel. Salvation. That's the salvation for the spirit, the soul, and the body. Salvation past, present, and future. Salvation now for individuals. Salvation in the future for the Jewish nation who will turn to God. Salvation for the nations, the Gentile nations, who will subject themselves to the righteous reign of Christ in the millennium, then salvation for the earth and the universe for all eternity. That's the root of this gospel, the purpose of it, the object and aim of, and the ultimate fruit of it. That's the purpose of this message. And what's the scope of it? To everyone at least. That's the scope, to everyone. And the proposition of belief. You've got to believe. Otherwise, there's no salvation. You've got to believe. A preacher and a soap manufacturer are walking down the street. And the soap manufacturer wasn't a Christian. He said to the preacher, well, he said there's an awful lot of wickedness or meanness in the world. It doesn't look as though you're preaching. It's doing very much to clean it up. Nothing was said. The preacher didn't come back. They went on down the street a little further, and here were four or five kits in front of a house making mud pies. And they were dirty from head to foot. The preacher turned around, and he said, well, he said, it doesn't look as though your soap is much good. There's an awful lot of filth in that around. The soap manufacturer kind of got his eye up, and he said, well, he said, it's got to be applied. The soap's got to be applied to be of any value. This is the preacher, and so does the gospel. It's got to be applied to the event. I can preach my heart out and tell you the way of salvation which I've done over the years. How you can be saved, washed white in the blood of Christ, made it for heaven. But then all my preaching and the preaching of others will not avail until you apply it. So it will not take the dirt off unless you apply it. everyone that believeth our texture, everyone that believes. Only when you accept this Christ and believe this gospel will you know its power in changing your heart and changing your life. I conclude with that seventy-three-eighteenth verse in Tessana. In verse seventeen, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Here's God's righteousness, God's salvation revealed. From faith to faith, as is written, and just to live by faith, I now notice another revelation. But the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. As God has revealed his gospel to save men, he's going to reveal his wrath in a day to come against those very ones who have refused. My Bible says that men are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath on the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And just as sure as Jesus Christ came into this world to reveal the righteousness of God, the wrath of God will be likewise revealed in the day soon to come upon all those who reject this message. And every time you hear the gospel and reject it, you're just treasuring up, says God, a little more wrath. The more responsibility and the more judgment we're rejecting that life. Oh, the wrath that's being treasured up by poor sinners today because of their constant refusal to accept Christ as Savior in the morning. Why not accept God's revelation of his Son in the gospel? Open your heart and receive it. And thus avoid that righteous revelation of the wrath of God in the soon coming day against all. unconverted men and unconverted women. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come to be, thanking thee for thy word. We bless thee for its simplicity. We thank thee, too, for its power. Grant the precious soul this morning.