Dr. Cecil A. Fayard - 2001 Sermons
Sunday, January 28, 2001   

INTRODUCTION: The Gospel is Good News. It is the good news that Christ died for sinners, was buried, and rose again the third day. The Gospel flows out of God's marvelous grace and mercy, and is God's gift to man. In verse one of this chapter, it is called the "gospel of God." What a glorious connection, the Gospel is good news from our maker (John 3:16).

Paul said, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ...." Why was Paul not ashamed of the Gospel? "For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth...." The Greek word used here for power is dunamis from which we get our English word dynamite. H. Boyce Taylor said of the Gospel's power: "it blows the gates of hell off the hinges. It shatters, awakens, and arouses the soul that is dead in trespasses and sins" (12).

1. VERSE 16, THE BOLDNESS OF PAUL TO PREACH THE GOSPEL
   1. He was not reluctant to preach the Good News. Every time Paul got an opportunity he told folks what Christ had done for him.
      
      1. Paul was glad to preach the Gospel to anyone and everyone. The preaching of the Gospel had caused him pain. He had been chased out of Thessalonica, put in jail at Philippi, smuggled out of Damascus and Berea, stoned and left for deed at Lystra, laughed at by the Athens. Yet, Paul's desire was to get the Gospel out.
         
      2. Are you willing to suffer discomfort for the sake of the Gospel?
         
         1. Can you say, "I am not ashamed of the gospel."
            
         2. As Paul was not ashamed, we must not be ashamed (Mark 8:38).
            
      3. How sad it is to be ashamed of the Gospel when we are not ashamed of sin and its consequences and when we laugh at sin.
         1. We are always to be ashamed of wickedness, worldliness, perversion, and sin.
            
         2. We are never to be ashamed of the Gospel.
            
         3. Let us lift our voices and proclaim the Gospel (I Corinthians 15:1-4).

2. VERSE 16b THE GOSPEL IS GOD'S POWER UNTO SALVATION
   1. The Gospel did not and does not come from man; it is from God.

   2. The Gospel is the power of God, the dynamite of God, that alone is sufficient and able to save the lost and give theme eternal life.
      
      1. Romans 5:6 tells us that man is helpless to save himself.
         
         1. Clearly, we can see from God's word that we cannot save ourselves (Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5).
            
         2. Church membership, baptism, the Lord's Supper, nor good works can save us.
            
         3. In Jeremiah 13:23, the Bible says: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil?" It is not within man's ability to change his depraved nature. He cannot know the things of God (I Corinthians 2:14).
            
      2. Keeping the Ten Commandments will not save you for you are unable to do so (Romans 8:3).
         
      3. When we preach Christ crucified, buried, and risen again, the world will laugh and mock; but God will go on calling His sheep by the Gospel (I Corinthians 1:18,21 23-25).
         
         1. The Gospel is the power of God that takes a sinful soul from the realm of darkness to the realm of light and life (John 5:24).
            
         2. There is only one power that can overcome man's depraved nature and give spiritual life, the power of God.
            
            
   3. "Unto salvation," this is the purpose of the Gospel.
      
      1. To believe the Gospel is to be saved.
         
      2. What does it mean to be saved? It means to be delivered:
         
         1. Penalty of sin-past justification.
            
         2. Power of sin-present-sanctification.
            
         3. Presence of sin-future--glorification.
            

            Negatively	Positively
            To rescue men from sins:	To bring men into a state:
            Guilt - Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14	Righteousness-Romans 3:21-26
            Pollution-Romans 6:6,17	Holiness-Romans 3:21-26
            Slavery-Galatians 5:1	Freedom-Galatians 5:1
            Punishment:	Blessedness:
            Alienation from God-Ephesians 2:12	Fellowship with God-Ephesians 2:13
            The wrath of God-Ephesians 2:3	God's love in our hearts-Romans 5:5
            Everlasting death-Ephesians 2:5,6	Everlasting life-Ephesians 2:1,5

3. VERSE 16, THE GOSPEL RECEIVED
   1. Notice that it does not say "behave and be saved." It says, "believe."
      
   2. "Believe" is the Greek word pisteuo meaning to 'trust in, rely on, have faith in."
      
      1. Man cannot be saved by good works for our efforts always fall short (Romans 3:23).
         
         1. Salvation is believing in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior.
            
         2. Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved..." When he asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved."
            
      2. We are not saved by good behavior or good works, but when we are saved good works are the outcome (Ephesians 2:10).

   3. Salvation is for those who believe without regard of race or nationality.

4. VERSE 17, RIGHTEOUSNESS REVEALED
   1. The Gospel is the power of God because it reveals, provides, and bestows the righteousness of God.
      
   2. The truth of the Gospel is that God gives Himself to make old sinners righteous.
      
      1. Man has no righteousness. This is why doing works will not save.
         
      2. Man has no righteousness; yet, he cannot be saved without it.
         
      3. Man cannot produce righteousness because he is the victim of Adam's sin, a servant of Satan, an enemy to God.
         
         1. Man is dead, lost in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).
            
         2. Man is unrighteous and lost (Isaiah 64:6).
            
      4. Only God has righteousness, and He offers to unrighteous men His righteousness.
         1. There is only one source of righteousness: God.
            
         2. The only condition by which man can be saved for men has no righteousness.
            
         3. Salvation is truly of the Lord not man.
            
         4. God saves man and does so with His righteousness.

   3. "From faith to faith."
      
      1. When we are regenerated, we receive life to believe, to have faith. Then we grow in grace, and we have more faith.
         
      2. J. Frank Norris said: "First it is the seed, than the plant, and then the full grown ear" (12).
         
      
      
   4. "The just shall live by faith."
      
      1. We walk by faith not by sight.
         
      2. The man who is in right relationship with God knows what life is (John 10:10).
         
         1. We have life because we have received the Gospel of faith.
            
         2. The believer is justified by faith, sanctified by faith, and moment by moment we live by faith.