First Baptist Church of El Dorado - Sermons
Tune in each week as Pastor Taylor Geurin leads us into a study of God's Word.
First Baptist Church of El Dorado - Sermons
Not Ashamed: Transformed by the Gospel: Embracing Our Mission as Ambassadors of Hope | Romans 1:1-7
This episode delves into the foundational truths found in Romans 1, focusing on the promise, preparation, and proclamation of the gospel. We explore the life-changing implications of Christ's resurrection and what it means to live as ambassadors of the good news in our communities.
• Paul defines the gospel and its significant impact
• The gospel as God's eternal promise revealed
• Christ's resurrection as the cornerstone of faith
• The transformative nature of grace received
• The mission of believers as ambassadors for Christ
• Salvation as deliverance and a call to purpose
1st Baptist Baptist El Dorado, will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week? Romans 1, verse 1, says this Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thank you for your word, thank you for the truth of the gospel. Lord, this morning would we see so clearly, so beautifully, that your gospel changes everything, the good news that Christ has come, christ has died, christ has risen, christ will come again. That changes everything. So, lord, through your word, would you speak now. We ask this in Christ's name, amen.
Speaker 1:Maybe you remember in school I'm sure you do taking a test, usually on a math test, and you'd have the problem, the equation laid out in front of you You're asked to solve and you see it, and maybe you're confident. At first it looks like you can handle it, but then there's these three words at the end and it says this show your work, show your work. And the reality is you think you can do it, you're certain you can get the right answer. I'm just not sure I can show you how I got the answer. I'm not sure I can do it in a legible way that my teacher can understand how I got the right answer. You probably have things in your life now, in your career, in a certain hobby, whatever it may be that if someone asked you, well, how do you do that, how do you get the result you get, you'd have to say I don't know, I can't really teach you. It's muscle memory at this point. I've been doing it for years. I can't teach you, I can just tell you I get it done. You're not able to show your work. We all have those things. As we come to the text. We're called this morning to show our work.
Speaker 1:Paul, in his introduction Romans 1, 1 through 7, wants to show the work of the gospel Throughout this whole book. Really, he's going to show us the work and the effects of the gospel and how it changes our lives. He's going to use that word gospel, good news throughout. And so from the very beginning he says if I can just show my work, if I can just define my terms, we'll get off to a good start. And so he defines the gospel and it's exactly what I want us to see this morning.
Speaker 1:We saw in verse 1, paul, a servant of Christ Jesus. We saw last week Paul the one who was the greatest opponent of the church, now the greatest missionary transformed by Christ. Opponent of the church, now the greatest missionary transformed by Christ. Now he is a servant of Christ, but not only that called to be an apostle. Now, what is that word apostle? Probably a word we've heard before. How do we define our terms there?
Speaker 1:I think we can think of apostle in two ways One maybe a capital A apostle, and a lowercase a apostle. As I think about the lowercase a apostle, really I would argue that applies to all believers. Apostle, literally just a sent one, One who is sent out on mission by God to carry the gospel. And if you know Jesus Christ, I would argue that is your job and that is your mission, that you are a sent one. But then there's also the capital A apostle. That's what Paul is, that's what 11 of the disciples then became the capital A apostle, and this is quite literally eyewitnesses to the resurrected Jesus who were then commissioned by Jesus to take the gospel forward. The capital A apostle. Are there any capital A apostles among us today? There are not, but we had these capital A apostles, these eyewitnesses to Jesus.
Speaker 1:Now, how does Paul fit in? Because at the time the disciples were rolling around with Jesus. He didn't like the church very much. He didn't like what Jesus was up to. Well, again, like we said last week, on that road to Damascus he got an eyewitness interaction with the risen Lord and he was commissioned to take the gospel forward. And so now he is also a capital, a apostle. So I think we could read both of those ideas into this first verse as we think about Paul.
Speaker 1:Now, later on we'll see down lower in verse 5 that we've all been granted apostleship, that lowercase a to go out, and so we can kind of think about it both ways in these verses. But Paul is called to be an apostle. Think about it both ways in these verses. But Paul is called to be an apostle. It's not his doing, he didn't do enough to earn apostle status. Look, he is called to it. Set apart for the gospel of God. And now Paul wants to spend the next five verses again showing his work, defining his terms.
Speaker 1:What is the gospel Now? I want us to see a few things this morning. Number one is this that through the gospel first, god promised. Through the gospel, god promised. Look at verse two Set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures which he promised. The gospel we've said this before is not plan b. Did you know this? The gospel is not plan b. The fall of humanity in genesis 3 in no way took god by surprise. But before the foundation of the world, redemption was on the heart of God. Before the foundation of the world, the cross was on the heart of God. Redemption was set forth. The gospel is not plan B. God was not scrambling for a solution and thought one up really quick. But God has always had redemption in mind and it had been promised really from eternity past. But God has always had redemption in mind and it had been promised really from eternity past, but certainly within history. We see Paul right here that beforehand, before even the gospel as we think about it within the gospels described in Matthew, mark, luke and John, even before that, the prophets and the holy scriptures looked towards the day of Jesus, looked towards the redemption that was coming and really the Redeemer that was coming.
Speaker 1:We see individuals like Isaiah. We saw during the Christmas season Isaiah make many statements about someone who would not come for another six or seven hundred years, but pointing to this Messiah. We see Isaiah and Ezekiel and Joel and many others. They are looking for the day when redemption would come to the people of God and they are waiting on this Messiah. They are looking towards this Messiah and God is promising us a Messiah all the way through scripture, that behind the scenes of the Old Testament, god is at work and God is on the move. Through the gospel God promised.
Speaker 1:But look at verse 3. Also through the gospel, god prepared, god prepared. These are the things. Verse 3, concerning his son, who was descended from David. According to the flesh, god in his sovereignty, prepared for the coming of his son. At just the right time, god sent forth his son to us. We see that it was the one descended from David. So God is moving the pieces on the board. God is bringing things about and bringing them to place.
Speaker 1:We saw through the Christmas season again in 2 Samuel 7, there was a promise made to David. God came to David and said that from your offspring, from your line, will come a son, and this son will sit upon the throne forever. This will be an eternal throne and he will be the king to sit on this throne. A promise was made and there's this thread that is woven throughout the course of history, where God is looking towards this Messiah who would come to us and at just the right time. I love how Galatians 4 says it.
Speaker 1:But when the fullness of time had come, god sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that they might receive adoption as sons in the fullness of time. God is always sovereignly in control, in the fullness of time, at his time, at the right moment. What did he do? This gospel he had prepared, the good news he had prepared from eternity past to bring forth to us, came in the person of Jesus. So, through the gospel, god promised and God prepared. But I love this. God proclaimed. Look with me at verse 4. And Jesus? He was declared to be the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ, our Lord. What is God's grand proclamation, grand declaration through the gospel? It is that there is a risen Savior. It is that Christ is risen from the grave, and that changes everything. I wonder where our faith would be if Christ had not risen from the grave. You ever thought about that? Where would we be? What would we be had Christ not been risen from the grave?
Speaker 1:There's a few things along the way in scripture that I read and as I gain more information I realize that maybe our things were a little bit different than I grew up hearing. I remember the story of Jonah and the whale. That's how I heard it Jonah and the whale, jonah and the whale. On the movies, on the television, the cartoons, on the felt board, it was Jonah and the whale. But you open Jonah and the reality is the word whale isn't there and really we're just dealing with a big fish. That's the word there. Maybe it could have been a whale, but really a big fish. But my question is this does that make or break my faith? Is anybody walking out of the room right now? Because you've just realized that it's not Jonah and the whale, it may just be Jonah and the big fish.
Speaker 1:Last month, when we talked about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem, there was no room in the inn and we kind of realized that it probably wasn't the case, that it was a hotel like we think of hotels, maybe a guest quarters, and no one walked out of the room. I don't think that broke our faith that it wasn't the holiday inn Bethlehem. We didn't leave the faith because of it. But then I come to something like the resurrection of Jesus, faith because of it. But then I come to something like the resurrection of Jesus. If that's not there, does that break the faith? If that's not there, are we done for? I think about the importance of it.
Speaker 1:Paul does too in 1 Corinthians 15. If there is no resurrection, paul talks about and he describes this haunting hypothetical if there were no resurrection. If there's no resurrection, then you and I are still in our sin. You and I are most to be pitied, even equally haunting, that those who have already passed on, gone before us, have perished. These are Paul's words and they're haunting words.
Speaker 1:If there is no resurrection, what do we do? If there's no resurrection, what do we do with Jesus? Well, there are a few things we could do. We could, you know, maybe have a good teacher. He said some good things and taught some good lessons, a good moral example. We could probably learn some things about morality and behaving ourselves in school and things like that. We could probably gain some inspirational sayings that we could tell ourselves in the morning and maybe just put a smile on our face through some good inspirational words. But what we would not have is this we would not have a Savior Right. What we would have is this we would still have our sin, and we would live in a world where sin and death do claim the final victory.
Speaker 1:Of course, I even think about that now. Do sin and death win? It seems like in our world sometimes it feels like they do conquer, don't they? I think about sin, and I think as we look in the mirror of our own lives. We see those moments where the weight of sin feels so heavy upon us, the weight of the temptation to sin feels insurmountable. We have those moments when we realize we need the Lord's sanctification in such a deeper way than we even knew. We think about sin in the lives of others, those very dear to us, who sin has taken them down extremely destructive paths, and it's been heartbreaking to see and heartbreaking to walk through. Does sin win in the end? I think does death win in the end, because we've seen the loss of so many we love deeply.
Speaker 1:There's something about death that just feels so final, doesn't it? Even the death of those that just seem in this life are larger than life. Even this last Thursday I tuned into the funeral of a former president. You talk about someone larger than life, for four years, the leader of the free world, and yet this was his funeral. Someone larger than life, for four years, the leader of the free world, and yet this was his funeral. It seems that death comes for all of us and it sure seems final.
Speaker 1:But is it the good news of the gospel verse five, excuse me four says this that there was a declaration by God, there was a proclamation from heaven, and the proclamation is simply this that 2,000 years ago, in a very real place, in a very real tomb, outside the city walls of Jerusalem, a very real individual breathed very real air into his lungs and put his feet on the ground and stood up and, in a very real way, walked out of the grave and in so doing, jesus Christ, the risen Lord, has defeated sin and death. And so that now, as we look upon the person of Jesus Christ and this declaration that has come from heaven, we can now find life in him, and that now, the sin and death which seems so final and dominant in our lives, they are a defeated opponent. Why? Because in his death, christ has defeated sin and death and in his life, christ has gained victory over all of it. The great proclamation of the gospel is that Christ is risen. So is our faith done? For if Christ has not been risen from the grave? The answer is this your faith never started if Christ has not risen from the grave. But if Christ has risen from the grave, that's the good news of the gospel, that's the declaration that has come from heaven that there is a risen Savior, who died for sin, who brought forgiveness with him and has risen. So, through the gospel, god promised, god prepared, god proclaimed. But now, in verse 5, we see this that God has provided, provided Look at verse 5.
Speaker 1:Provided, provided Look at verse 5. Through whom? Through him, we have received grace, grace. Let's start there. What we have received, what God has provided Grace, what is grace? We use that word often, but here we are today defining our terms, showing our work. What is grace? It is God providing for us that which we do not deserve God's gift of his son for us, who, you and I, are in every way undeserving of this gift. And yet Christ, in his love, has looked upon us and has given us salvation through his death and through his resurrection. That's what grace is. And look at verse 5. It's been provided. We have received grace. And then there's this and we have received grace and apostleship there's that word again apostleship that you and I now are sent ones, sent out on mission. So not only have we received grace, we've received a mission from God. We have been put to work on behalf of God to go forth with the gospel to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name, for his name, among all nations, including you, who were called to belong to Jesus Christ. So, in Christ, because of the gospel, we're now sent out as those who have received grace, to let others know that there's a place where grace can be found, and we are on mission by God. You know it's interesting.
Speaker 1:My favorite board game maybe your favorite board game, I don't know is the game Monopoly, and I love this game and I play as much as I can. Yet the reality is I don't have a lot of opportunity to play anymore because my extended family no longer wishes to play with me, and I'll tell you why I don't agree with it. But I'll tell you why. It's because they don't think as highly as I do about just a rule of law about instructions as they're written. They don't like it when you know they come up with a house rule and I have to go to the instructions and let them know. You actually can't do that, but that's beside the point.
Speaker 1:Within the game of Monopoly, you and I all know this there's this very important card here that you can draw and it's this get-out-of-jail-free card. You know how it works. The name of it is pretty self-explanatory. If you were in jail, I can lay this down and I'm now out of jail. It's good news. You don't have to pay $50. You don't have to pay $50. You don't have to roll doubles. You just have to lay down the card and you're now out of jail.
Speaker 1:But you and I both know this and you've heard this before, that the reality is a lot of us can treat salvation, treat the gospel like it's this right here, like it's just a get out of jail free card. That the gospel and my salvation is just a way to avoid the bad and so that there's this real place called hell, there's this real thing called judgment, there's this real thing called the wrath of God, and certainly I don't want that. So if I just pray the prayer I say, jesus, I'm in. I lay down the card. Suddenly I've got the get out of jail free card and I don't have to deal with the bad. That's how we treat salvation sometimes.
Speaker 1:Now, quick side note, I want to be very clear about something Praise God for what he's done. I don't want to limit everything I just said. I don't want to downplay it in any way. There is a real place called hell. There is a real judgment I deserve and because of the gospel in Christ Jesus, that no longer has to be my future, but in Christ Jesus he is my future. So I'm not downplaying that at all and I'm not saying we don't worship God accordingly and we don't celebrate accordingly. What I am saying is this God has not just saved us from something, he's also saved us for something. Don't miss that. He's not just saved us from sin, death and hell he has, and don't forget it but he's also saved us for something, so that we can live the life he has called us to, so that we can live in a way that he desires for our lives and so that we can go be on mission for him. And look at verse 5, for the sake of his name, among all the nations, we can go forth with the gospel. It reminds me of Ephesians 2.10. Nations, we can go forth with the gospel. It reminds me of Ephesians 2.10.
Speaker 1:Right after these beautiful verses, paul speaks about you've been saved by grace through faith. It's the gift of God. Then he says this but you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. For what? For good works that he has prepared beforehand for you to walk into. He's not just saved us from something, he's also saved us for something.
Speaker 1:There is no category in scripture for a Christian who sits on the sidelines. It doesn't exist. But instead we see a gospel that frees us by his grace and calls us to the life he's called us to live, and we are not just invited to that life. We are, but we are commanded to walk the road of that life, and I see many people in this room that can do it very well, that daily, do it very well, and that is the calling we are called to. So here is Paul showing his work. Through these five or so verses, he has shown us a definition of the gospel.
Speaker 1:I want to ask this question, though what is missing from this definition? What do I not see? As I come to this definition. I'll tell you the answer is me. I'm nowhere to be found. I guess you could argue I'm in verse 5. You're in verse 5 if you know Christ Jesus. You're found in that you are a recipient, you are a beneficiary of all that Christ has done. In that sense, yeah, you're there. But in the sense of achieving that salvation, earning that salvation, where am I? I'm nowhere to be found.
Speaker 1:I love the now famous sermon by Alistair Begg. He asked the question how are we saved? And he says this that if you answer the question of how am I saved in the first person, you've immediately gone wrong. Because I, because I did this, because I did that, the only answer to the question of how I am saved must come in the third person. Because he, because he did the work, because he went to the cross, because he rose from the grave. I bring nothing to the table in this salvation equation. And if you say this none of the table. I want to bring something to the table, then we can paint one picture. I'll let you bring something to the table. The only thing you bring to the table is your sin. You've gone in the negative before we've even gotten started. And yet Christ, the third person, because he did the work redemption can be found.
Speaker 1:Alistair Begg goes on to explain it like this he talks about the thief on the cross. You remember the story of the thief on the cross? An amazing story of a guy. We call it a deathbed conversion. Really, it's a conversion on the cross. How does that happen? He talks about this man getting to heaven and a hypothetical story of people wondering what are you doing here? How did you get here?
Speaker 1:And the guy I don't really know how I got here. And then they look at him and he said no, really, tell us how you're here. And the only answer he can give is tell us how you're here. And the only answer he can give is simply this that the man on the middle cross said I could come. But let's be clear, that's not just the answer for the thief on the cross. That's the answer for you and me that the man on the middle cross said I can come. And here I am. I didn't do it. I didn't earn it. In fact, I earned the exact opposite. But Christ Jesus did what I could not. And here I am. Undeserved in Christ Jesus, verse 7. Who's he writing to? To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ To all those who are in Rome. It's fascinating that in Rome, not the church of Rome, not some big complex like we might think of a church nowadays, but a house church or a series of house churches in Rome, my friend I talked about, martin Lloyd-Jones with his beautiful books said this last week, or said this I mentioned him last week. The church is a gathering of Christian believers. They may be in London, in Rome, in Corinth, in Ephesus, I would add, in El Dorado or elsewhere. They are not of the place in that sense they are in it, but they are citizens of heaven All around the world.
Speaker 1:Right now, in so many foreign countries we have US embassies spread out, even here. Other countries have embassies in our country on our home soil and you look at these US embassies we have spread out and there's some technical things. There's some technicalities where you know technically it's still foreign soil, but if you really think about it in one sense there are rights and protections that exist at that US embassy, even overseas. That if I'm an American citizen and I get to that embassy, then in one sense that embassy, then in one sense, in a very real sense, it's basically as if I've just come to my home soil. It's, in one sense, this little spot of US soil far away from home. That's what an embassy is.
Speaker 1:I want you to think about something that, as we meet in this room, week by week, we come to this place. Where have we come? We've come into a building that's sitting on Eldorado soil. You dig down, you're going to find Eldorado soil, find some oil after that I don't know what lithium is, but you'll find that too. But we're sitting on El Dorado soil.
Speaker 1:But in one sense, in a truer sense, we're not that as we come into this building and as we gather together as the church of Jesus Christ, this room really is transformed into what An embassy of heaven, a heavenly outpost that meets at this place and we all come together as this heavenly embassy. But here's my favorite part of it that at 1120, when those back doors open, we all flood out and from this heavenly embassy go many ambassadors of Christ that take that embassy out, that these ambassadors go forward into their homes and their communities and schools and jobs and guess what? They take the kingdom of God with them. They take the gospel with them, the gospel that Paul has defined, that Christ has died and risen and Christ will come again. We take that forward so that the kingdom of God might expand. We are ambassadors of Christ who have been saved by the gospel of Christ and now are on mission by Christ, and that is the work of this church of Jesus Christ in this embassy of Christ, as we take the kingdom of Christ forward, this church of Jesus Christ in this embassy of Christ, as we take the kingdom of Christ forward. The good news of the gospel is that we have been saved and now we get to go tell others the best news we've ever heard. We get to go tell a broken and lost world that I've been transformed and in Christ you can too. That is what the church does, that is who the church is, and this gospel is what the church is built on.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, I thank you for your gospel. It's good news. It is the good news of what you've done in Christ. I pray that there's one here that doesn't know that gospel for themselves, doesn't know that Jesus is the Savior that this very day they would come to know you. I pray that there's one that wants to be a part of this embassy of the kingdom of God, wants to join this church, this family, that they would come, that they would come be a part of this church so that we can become a better church, so that we can wrap our arms around them.
Speaker 1:Lord, I pray if there's one this morning that needs prayer, that just needs a touch from you, lord that they would, this morning, come to the throne. Lord, allow me to go to the throne on their behalf. Over them, lord. However, one needs to respond in this room. I pray that it would be done. And, lord, above all, we thank you for Christ Jesus. Through his resurrection, we have life. Through the gospel, we have hope and Lord, because of that gospel, we can live on mission for you, and so, lord, help us each to do that this week. Lord, as we worship now, if there's any that need to respond, let them come. I ask this in Christ's name Amen, would you stand now and I'll be down front for any that would like to respond.