THE GOSPEL OF GOD

0:02 Certain times you meet people and they leave a lasting impression on your life. Fifteen years ago, I met such a man. This guy is one of these people that whatever he touches turns to gold. I'm not really talking about financially. I'm talking about athletically, relationally, just as a leader, as a man's man. Former Olympian.

0:40 He is an expert at some of the most difficult things to do in the world. He grew up in humble surroundings. From there, though, he was catapulted into the jet set. You know, the high flyers, you know, the people that call the seasons of the year. I mean, they use them like verbs, like, I summer in Aspen. Does that make sense to you?

1:12 I winter in Grapevine. So he ran with that crowd and just threw a weird, now looking back, definitely, a God-ordained meeting. I was sitting one day at a bar before a meeting.

1:37 And I looked at the people around the bar. There were a few. and I thought, whoa, that's this guy. so I I walked up to him and introduced myself and over the years we got to know each other he came over to our house and we we shared some meals and and I could tell pretty rapidly that that he was not a follower of Christ let me stop I don't like go to bars I was in a meeting and this is a whole other story that happened to be in a bar and I was one of the first ones there. There was no place to sit, so I sat in a bar. But I don't have a problem if you sit at a bar. I just want to, you know.

2:30 Some of you are like, what? Ed goes bar hopping? I didn't know that. So I could tell just by the people that he associated with the places that he frequented, I could tell that he was not a follower of the Lord Jesus.

2:54 So I really felt impressed to pray for him. I began to pray. And praying for a guy like that, it's almost like a Hail Mary, you know, like, oh, he'll never bow the knee. This guy, he has everything. I mean, fame, fortune, great athlete, influencer. I mean, he's not going to bow the knee. And I saw him several times. And then one time he invited me to his house. He lives in another state. and we sat there and I was just praying while he made me breakfast. We were talking about various things and as he took me back to my hotel, I began to talk to him about the things of God and it just never really came together. He would always say like, yeah, I'm cool with God when I'm doing this or that.

3:52 I talked to him and Jesus and I, Yeah, yeah, yeah. But also, Ed, I'm a spiritual person, you know? People say that. And that's true. Everyone's spiritual. And I would agree and go, yeah, those are good ideas. I mean, to live like Jesus lived, to follow the golden rule, those are good ideas. That's good advice.

4:15 But in that Suburban one day, as he was dropping me off at the hotel, I just kind of challenged him a little bit. and then I walked up to my room and I'm like, Ed, you coward. You didn't go for the ask. You didn't give him an opportunity to seal the deal. And this went on for several meetings.

4:44 One time I even invited him here and that's a whole nother story. this Tuesday morning I I did what I normally do I listened to the Bible study that we write every day on our app it's a five or six minute Bible study gives you application and prayer if you don't have the app lift your hand if you don't have the app it's okay I'm not going to call you out I'm just asking you to lift your hand. Here's what you can do. See the QR code? Just tap it, and you can download the app. Fourth icon in, you scroll one, two, three, four. You'll see a picture of Bible, cup of coffee. That's it. So you really have no excuse. I'm talking to believers now not to read the word of God. So on Tuesday I was listening and then I listened to it and one of the texts was from the book of Romans, which we're studying.

5:57 I was like, that's a challenging. And I started thinking about him. And then in my journal, I started writing some prayers down and pray for him. And then from there I read the text that we just heard. In fact, it might be the most important text in scripture. the climax of it is don't be ashamed of the gospel. And I began to study once again, what the word gospel means good news, but really the picture behind it is a herald. Like if a emperor would win a battle outside of town, I mean, how would he tell his people that he won. What, he texted? No, didn't have texts back then. He would hire heralds to ride their horses into the towns and hamlets and say, victory, we won. And that's, that's the gospel. So I began to just think about that. And I, I got convicted. I, you know, I never say this. Don't ever say this. God told me, I mean, how do you argue with that? Really? God told you when, whenever someone says that I'm thinking, well, it's doubtful. God told them what they're telling me. Here's what to say. I believe the Holy Spirit has impressed this upon my life. Very, very important because we live in the land of God told me.

7:38 home open I called him in my office. I think the timestamp was 938 this Tuesday. I began just to talk to him a little bit. And he shared with me that one of his best friends had just died a day earlier. And he goes, Ed, I'll send you the text thread. This is like crazy. This guy was talking about the other side and everything, and he died on the operating table.

8:18 I said, oh, man, I hate to hear that because his friend was not a believer either. So he begins to share with me that he has this critical medical condition. It came out of nowhere, and he's facing this major surgery. So I just called him my name and I said, hey, how are you doing with this Jesus thing that we've been talking about? Oh, you know, he went through the same song and dance when I'm out in the woods, you know. I'm talking to him, we're at peace. Live by the golden rule. here's what we have to understand you might want to write this down the gospel is not good advice it's not. It's good news. Good advice is going to be, yeah, I'm cool with Jesus.

9:28 I live by the golden rule. I try to be a good guy. I try to live a good life. That's good advice. No, no, no. The gospel is good news. So he told me that and I said, hey, those are good ideas. but I'm not talking about that. I said, let me walk you through the storyline of what the Bible says about how to know Jesus. He goes, oh, okay. I said four things, and I'll just run through these. I said, first of all, the Bible talks about bad news. We have a sin problem. You are born, you were born a sinner.

10:13 I am too. I was born that way. I have a sin nature. Sometimes people go, well, man, how can I have this sin nature from Adam? That doesn't seem fair. Think about Adam being the team captain. And he dropped the ball while we're on his team, the first Adam, and we inherited that sin nature. I said, the Bible is very direct about that, that we're sinners and that's bad news. I said, the news gets worse. We deserve eternal separation from God. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, right? In fact, you could take the book of Romans and go through this text for the wages of sin is death, Romans 6, 23, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

11:18 It unpacks everything I was telling you. sin is the bad news death it's worse news but here's the pivot but the free gift the gift of God that's that's good news is eternal life and eternity lasts a long time through Jesus Christ our Lord so the Bible is just a nutshell narrative, bad news, worse news, good news, great news. And after I finished, here's what he, he's already asked me, what do I need to do? I said, well, I'll be happy to lead you in just a prayer to God about how to make this decision. so we prayed, and we both were weeping as he stepped over the line of faith and received the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, and I'm going to tell you guys something.

12:35 This guy would be one of the last people that you would think, oh, one day he'll become a Christian. Him? Him? the apostle paul was was similar yet it was on another level the apostle paul saint paul you might call him and did you just know that that we're all saints did you know that you are you're if you're a believer the bible calls you a saint paul the apostle paul St. Paul, before his name was Paul, his name was Saul, and he was a persecutor of Christians. In other words, he had Christians killed. He had the equivalent of a triple PhD, photographic memory. He was absolutely 100% bold and brilliant. His whole mission, though, was to have Christians killed.

13:46 And he did a great job of it. he was the Pharisee of Pharisees. He was part of this sect of, of people who were set apart in their legalism. They had to obey 613 laws and hundreds on top of that. They were so strict. If the fringe of their garment was too long, you got a problem. If, if, if the robe rubbed up against a Gentile, you've got a problem. That's how legalistic the apostle Paul was. One day the Bible says in the book of Acts chapter seven, that Paul was watching Stephen, the first martyr being stoned to death. And he was literally holding the robes of the men as they hurled rocks at Stephen. Stephen was worshiping while he was dying. Stephen said, forgive them while he was dying.

14:45 In that situation, seeing that martyr wrecked the Apostle Paul. Soon thereafter, on the Damascus Road, he was born again. we've seen a modern day martyr Charlie Kirk have we not And Charlie Kirk is handing us, the Christian army, the microphone. but the microphone is bloody.

15:31 The church has been built on the back of the blood of martyrs. Some 100,000 people a year around the world are martyrs. again I was so excited I still am so thrilled that my friend became a Christian I'm heartbroken over the tragic loss of Charlie Kirk, but he's not lost. He's in heaven. It's not bye-bye. It's see you later with him. I'm really praying that that this death that we that we saw on television, online, everywhere else.

16:29 I pray that it can become and it will become it will become a catalyst for a great revival, a great spiritual awakening in our world. And friends, I believe I believe I believe it will. But I mean, that's a heavy, heavy word I'm giving you. Here's the mic, my man. You call yourself a Christian? Hey, lady, here's the mic.

16:58 I love what Charlie Kirk said. He said, you know, pastors contact me all the time and say, hey, you're not nice. And Charlie said, no, I'm not nice. I'm kind. I'm kind. And too many pastors, way too many pastors are so scared because they just want to be nice. Nice little sermons that are kind of like TED talks and nice little comfortable churches. And they're going to tell us how to be nice. And oh, no, no, I can't really share the guts of the gospel. Hey, the gospel is offensive.

17:44 The gospel is not nice. It's kind. Bad news, our sin, which is abhorrent in the eyes of God. the worst news hell we face hell you're going to hell when you die if you've kept jesus at a distance man how could god hurl someone to hell hey god doesn't we make that choice we just simply get a greater measure in eternity of what we desired on planet earth Thank you. Paul writes the book of Romans from Corinth. He'd never been to Rome. Rome was a powerful city. They were all about power.

18:36 It was very decadent, very, very immoral. Paul was obviously sharing with the Romans Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought about the power? of the gospel and the power of Jesus Christ, the power of our God.

18:58 Some 117 billion people have lived on planet Earth, but there's one that stands above them all. He never wrote a book, never wrote a poem, never wrote a song, never painted a picture, never started a school, but look at what he did and look at what he left. of course help you understand when I say left he's obviously here he's on my present but I think you get the point a Jewish carpenter? What?

19:45 Being crucified? I mean, the Romans wouldn't even touch that. Crucifixion, that's blue collar, man. That's the gin pop. No, no, no. We're philosophical. We're smart. We're up here, Jews. You're down there. A Jewish carpenter, you've got to be smoking something. So here we have Paul who moved from a persecutor to a pastor. We have Paul writing the book of Romans. And Romans chapter one is probably the most important chapter in the entire Bible. So if I'm you, which I'm not, I would have my rear here at Fellowship Church. Because for the next eight weeks, we're going to study the book of Romans. We're going to understand what it means to have a foundation of our faith. This is the Magna Carta of Christianity. It's our constitution. If you want to understand what Christianity is all about, check us out here.

20:42 You might be a follower of Christ. You could have double or triple PhDs from seminary. Good for you. This book will bless your life. You might be like my friend was before he became a Christian. This book will speak to you. it will transform your life if you'll allow it. you know we're all called did you know that as believers we're called but really if you want to get technical it's not a volunteer army. And if we're not serving, sharing, and sowing, we've gone AWOL. so Paul is going to get in our grill a little bit are you ready for this four things Romans chapter 1 verses 14 through 17 the first thing I want you to notice is and this is Paul speaking I just kind of wrote down kind of what I thought he would say the debt I owe number two the drive I show and number three the decision I make and number four the deal I take I just outlined for you maybe the most important verses in scripture because these verses kick-started the protestant reformation do you know what the protestant Reformationists.

22:24 I'm glad you asked because only three people lifted their hand. The Protestant Reformation was a 16th century movement that challenged corruption and unbiblical teachings in the Catholic Church. It was an emphasis on salvation by faith through grace, an emphasis on the authority of scripture, and an emphasis on birthing Protestant churches. Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli, and Knox were a part of the Protestant Reformation. It's not by works, it's by grace through faith. Faith.

23:12 And that rocked the world. It rocked the world. Martin Luther. had a tower experience. Just put the tower experience in chat GPT or Google it or whatever. But the cliff notes would be, he was an amazing monk. He was a good monk, but he said he was empty.

23:42 He saw everything by works. And during this tower experience, he began to read the text that I'm gonna read to you. and here's what he said in his own words. I'm talking Martin Luther. He said, I experienced a breakthrough. that's what can happen in your life right now. That's what can happen where you are. That's what can happen in your school. That's what can happen in your family. A breakthrough. One breakthrough is the gospel is not just good advice. It's good news. Another breakthrough is the gospel is not just about forgiveness. I know I'm messing some former Catholics up here. I talked to a friend of mine.

24:39 He's a Roman Catholic. Great guy. He said, you know, Ed, I just love what you do. At Fellowship Church, it's great. And you just talk about the forgiveness of God. And I say that every day. I'm forgiven. I'm forgiven. And hey, that's right. but the gospel and I shared some information with them is more than just forgiveness. Do you understand that? It's about receiving the righteousness of God. I'll say it again. It's about forgiveness and it's about receiving the righteousness of God. If it was just about forgiveness, it'd be like a spiritual etch-a-sketch. My bad. My bad. My bad. It's forgiveness and the righteousness of God. Now, before I read some of these verses, I want you to think about this because I'm a word picture guy. Let me talk to the guys. Most of my illustrations are for men. They really are because I'm a guy.

25:55 let's say you work for a company. This company is a billion dollar company. And at a weak moment, you steal some money. I mean, you steal a lot of money. And for a while, you're like, pretty good, adrenaline rush. But then you get the text that freaks you out. The owner wants to see you in his office. So you walk in and he looks at you and he says, I know what you did. I know you ripped me off. And this guy's thinking, I might go to jail.

26:46 Then the owner says, I forgive you. and by the way I want to give you half of the company I just described to you guys forgiveness and righteousness. Here's another illustration, just for the guys. Let's say you're on death row and the governor pardons you. I'm free, dude, I'm free. Yeah, you're free. Okay, that's good, but I mean, you're just walking around free. Okay. but on top of that, what if after you've been released, after you've been pardoned,

27:45 you are awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor? Are you feeling me? Guys, please nod your heads. Forgiveness and righteousness. Okay, now we plow into the text. Here's what Paul said. I am obligated, verse 14, both to the Greeks and the non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. Some translations say the wise and the barbarians. So Paul's saying from the billionaire to the barbarian, I am obligated. The original language says I'm indebted. it's very easy to see barbarians the word barbarian means uncultured just go to DFW airport and sit there and watch people file by I want to say is this the pajama party nice athleisure wear. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's kind of scary, but you know what? Paul says the barbarian can be a recipient of the gospel. And so can my friend that became a believer Tuesday. He's a high flyer, man. So the gospel is for everybody, But I love what Paul says, I'm in debt.

29:14 I'm in debt, I'm in debt, I'm in debt. This has nothing to do with working for your salvation. Paul was in debt to Jesus for obvious reasons, right? He was in debt to the heroes of the faith. he was in debt to the people around him. So he had this focus. Oh, I'm indebted. And if you remember last week, Paul said he was a bond slave to Jesus Christ. A bond slave is someone who was indebted to someone. They couldn't pay the debt off, so they became their slave. And then they were released during the year of Jubilee. Many slaves voluntarily and lovingly said, you know what? I had it so good with my man. I'm going to be your slave.

30:10 So when Paul talks about indebtedness, that's what he's talking about. Are you indebted to Jesus? You don't live like it, do you? Or maybe you do. Are you indebted to the martyrs of the faith?

30:38 Oh, I am. I don't think about it enough, but I should. Hey, how about at Fellowship Church, are you indebted to the people who came before you? Who do you think paid for that seat right there? Who paid for that camera? Who paid for the carpet? Who paid for the screens? Who paid for the air conditioning?

31:02 Who paid? Who paid for our incredible security team? Who paid for that? Someone, someone who came before you. You're indebted. I'm indebted. And it's a good debt. Don't tell Dave Ramsey. I was with Dave. I spoke at an event in Mexico, a leadership event. I was with him and got to meet him. Hey, I've heard about you. Anyway. So, uh, I like Dave though. That's kind of a weak imitation of him, but if I hear him, I can imitate him. Dave Ramsey. That was funny.

31:54 So then notice what Paul says, the drive I show, the drive, he has this drive. That's why I'm still so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. Paul was not going to Rome as a sightseer, but a soul winner. And one of the things that messes people up about the gospel is it reveals our helplessness. Those who are educated, those who are sophisticated, those who are philosophical,

32:34 it messes them up because it's simple. Simple. Simple. I want to be known as a simple preacher. I didn't say shallow. Simple. Sometimes I hear pastors and I'm like, what in the heck are they talking about? And then people will leave and go, man, I was confused. So this guy must really be deep. No, he's not deep. He's muddy.

33:09 I want to be clear. and deep. The gospel is clear and deep. And for a lot of us, it's like, whoa, because it shows I'm helpless before God. It shows, are you ready for this? Because the intelligentsia loves this. It shows my self-righteousness is just a bunch of filthy rags. There is nothing righteous I can do on my own. Nothing righteous you can do on your own. Zero. we're in trouble now obviously when we receive the righteousness of jesus and we're going to talk about positional righteousness in a second but in a practical sense yes once we know christ we can live not a perfectly righteous life but a righteous life but i'm talking about away from the lord Jesus, you and I, we offer nothing to him. Nothing. And if you think you offer him something, you don't. If you think you offer him something, when you die, you're going to be in for a giant surprise.

34:34 The debt I owe, you're in debt, so am I. The drive I show, I should have this drive to proclaim the glorious gospel. How about the decision I make? Verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I like that I'm not ashamed of the gospel. In other words, some people were and are ashamed of the gospel.

35:04 Ashamed when the Holy Spirit gives you an opportunity to share it. Ashamed even to bow your head before you eat a meal in a restaurant. You're ashamed of the gospel. I don't think Charlie Kirk was. Do you? I don't think the apostle Paul was. Do you? I don't think Stephen was. Do you?

35:35 So I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I see again, let me just break this down. The gospel was insulting to Paul's crew. I mean, all those snobby Romans. Oh, it's insulting. Kidding me? a lot of people I've talked to in my life, a lot of the cool Ivy leaguers, smart people, the gospel is insulting. It's so simple. It's so profound because you're looking at Mr. Big Time and going, you've got nothing.

36:16 And man, that's a hard pill to swallow for prideful, especially men. You got nothing. I had nothing. This is not me. What happened to that guy? It's not me. Some of you are like, oh man, that's what you said. No, no. That's the power of the gospel. I'm just an instrument, a tool in the hands of our great God. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. The gospel, we know what that means. It's good news. and we're to proclaim it because it is the power of God. Not it contains the power of God. It is the power of God. It is the power of God for the salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. Paul is not talking about a priority here, like the Jews are better than the Gentiles. No, no, no, no.

37:12 the Jewish nation, the Jewish people dropped the ball. God gave them the ball. They were to witness and share the Lord with the world. They dropped the ball. Guess who has the ball now? The church. The church. I understand there are many Jews who are completed Jews. The apostle Paul was a Jew and many of his recipients in Rome were Jews, but by and large, no, no, no, no. They missed it. They missed it. So, so I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God for the salvation to everyone who believes first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. But look at the last thing. Yes. He talks about the debt I owe the drive. I show the decision my make. But, but the last thing is I mentioned already the deal I take for in the gospel, a righteousness that's right standing from God is revealed a righteousness. There's a word again.

38:22 The word righteousness is used 60 times in the book of Romans, a righteousness that is by what? By what? By what? By what? I don't see works in there, do you? I don't see baptism in there, do you? I don't see taking the Lord's Supper or communion in there, do you? I don't see confirmation in there, do you? It is by faith. I believe that's a chair. Watch this.

39:26 I'm going to move from belief to faith. I'm moving from belief to faith. Faith. I'm resting on this chair and the Bible says that I rest in the righteousness of God I didn't design this chair I didn't make this chair I'm resting in it I didn't think up the gospel the apostle Paul didn't make it up that's been in play since the book of Genesis we rest in it you are righteous my friend if you're a believer you're righteous not because of you or me it's because of the righteousness of God the righteousness of God the gospel see is outside of us Thank you.

40:34 and by faith, we can bring it inside of us. The Bible says that we're seated with Christ. In other words, picture again, here I am in heaven sitting in this chair. I'm talking about positional righteousness now, and Jesus is sitting in the chair next to me. We're in the heavenlies. God the Father looks at us.

41:05 And I've got a question, a theological question for you. Which one of us is more righteous, Jesus or me? Me or Jesus? Both. both now practically I'm to live a righteous life which I said earlier I am to die to self and the power of the Holy Spirit remember my friend gives me the ability to live by the golden rule to talk to God in the woods and all of that we have to understand though the righteousness of Christ. Forgiveness, which is absolutely stunning, and also the righteousness of Christ.

42:01 And here's the word. It's been imputed into our lives, credited to your account. Guys, let me give you another story. You're bankrupt. and Elon Musk decides to give you his entire fortune, just to credit your account, it's yours. I don't know how many billion he's worth now, but whatever. Yeah, yeah. You're like, oh my goodness. That's unbelievable. He was credited to my account.

42:39 So the righteousness of Jesus, His perfect behavior, watch this now, is credited to your account and mine. And we don't deserve it. That's why it's about God. It's not about me. It's not about you. It's about God. so similarly when adam our team captain our representative the first adam when he dropped the ball and he did guilt was imputed into our lives are you are you are you with me still Jesus the second Adam is our team captain and when he did what he did if we're believers we won this is so critical that you understand this Paul was talking about the debt I owe, the drive I show, the decision I make, and the deal that I take. For in the gospel, I love this, righteousness from God is revealed.

43:57 A righteousness that is by faith, from first to last, just as it is written, I love this, Tabacca chapter two, verse four, Paul quotes it there. The righteous shall live by faith. I've got one question for you. are you going to take the bloody microphone? Are you going to take the bloody microphone that our modern day martyr Charlie Kirk is offering? Are you? as our heads are bowed and eyes are closed Father we thank you for this time some here need to pray a prayer like my friend prayed with me Tuesday morning at 9.38am and here's the prayer if you want to become a believer this is it God I admit to you you say this, I'm a sinner.

45:19 I turn from my sins and turn to you. I repent. I ask you, Jesus Christ, to come into my life. I give you all that I am. Forgive me of my sins, God. wipe my slate clean, which he will, which he's doing right now, because he's already done the work. and Father, I receive your right standing, your righteousness. I admit to you I'm a sinner, number one. Number two, I believe, God, that you sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sins. Number three, I repent, and I receive you, Jesus Christ, into my life. I receive what you did for me on that cross and right now it's being credited to your account.