The Gospel of God - Romans 1:14-17

1:30He tells them that it's God's gospel. He calls it the gospel of God. He tells them that it was promised beforehand. The gospel was promised beforehand in the Old Testament by God's prophets. And he tells them that it's about Jesus, God's Son. That's what he's mentioned so far about the gospel. Well, today he's going to jump into that gospel. He's going to tell us more about the gospel of God. Our text for today starts in verse 14. Look at Romans 1, verse 14. I am under obligation, both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

2:18For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Pray with me. Father, we have already in the scripture reading been captivated by the ministry of Paul as he speaks to those leaders and says, Remember my life, copy my life. I worked hard to share the gospel. I worked hard preaching. all the time that we should repent and have faith.

3:06And Father, now we see even more into that gospel that Paul preached. I pray, Lord, that you would help us study it. I pray that you would help us understand it. This is our hope as Christians. This is the truth that changed our lives and the truth that we believe in. And I pray this morning that as we study this passage that we could be thrilled about your gospel, eager to talk about it more and thrilled about the truth that Christ came and died on the cross for our sins and rose again and that we can come to him and believe in him and be forgiven from everything we've ever done. We thank you, Father, for this time. We pray that you bless us in Jesus' name. Amen.

4:07Well, we saw in that text that we just read that Paul is eager to preach the gospel. He is excited to preach the gospel. He feels obligated to preach the gospel because of the ministry that he's received from the Lord. And he also says that he is not ashamed to preach the gospel. Why? Why is Paul not ashamed to preach this gospel? Why is he so eager to get this message across? Why is he always saying the same thing everywhere he goes? Why does he always stick to one message? Well, in our text today, we are going to see three compelling truths about the gospel of God. Three truths about the gospel that caused Paul to be unashamed. Three truths. And the first one is that it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter who you are. Look at verse 14. I am under obligation, both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, so I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. So first Paul mentions two groups, the Greeks and the barbarians. And you might be wondering, okay, what's this got to do with the Romans? Why does it make sense for him to say, I'm under obligation to the Greeks and to the barbarians, so I'm eager to preach the gospel to you, Romans? How does that fit together? And if you know history, you might be puzzled even further. You might remember that the Roman Empire was the next big empire after the Greek Empire. So why is he talking about Greece if he's writing to the Romans?

5:57Well, the Greek Empire was gone. But its influence certainly wasn't gone. And you might remember this: that the influence of the Greeks stuck around in that culture for a long time, especially through the language. Greek was the cultural language of the world, and all the educated would have known it. It would have been all over the place, and we see that in the New Testament, right? What language is the New Testament written in? It's written in Greek.

6:27It crossed cultures. And so, even though the language of Rome was historically Latin, and you might have heard that before, that throughout their history they spoke and educated even wrote in Latin, they also would have known Greek. Anyone high class would have known Greek for sure. And that brings us to the next phrase that he uses. He says, the Greek and the barbarian. The barbarian would have been anybody who didn't know Greek. Some people think that the word barbarian has to do with the language itself. That since these people were originally from out of town, but then later came in and they didn't know Greek, that since they sounded to the people they were speaking to like ba, ba-ba, barbarian, they couldn't understand them, that's where they got the word. So over time, it started out. With this language barrier, but then it became this distinction in class, right? The Greek and the barbarian. The barbarian was the person that was looked down upon. That was the low-class person.

7:43While the well-to-do, the high-class person, could be summed up as a Greek, even in Rome. And so now you see the point that Paul is making, right? The gospel is for everyone, to Greeks and barbarians, the Greeks and the not Greeks. The gospel is for everyone, high-class or low-class. This is paralleled by the next phrase, and you can see that, right? The Greek and barbarian, and then the wise and the foolish. So, Paul, you remember this, that Paul is able to debate with anybody. He can share the gospel in the Areopagus. He can debate with the political leaders and the government leaders at that time. He can reason with anybody, but he's also content, eager even, to share the gospel with the poor and the lonely, lowly and the lonely. But he's not partial at all. He knows that the gospel of God is for everyone. It doesn't matter who you are.

8:51And so, when they were reading this, maybe in Rome, and maybe there is some snobby people in Rome, and they would read this and They would immediately stick their nose up at what he's saying. You know, you also preach to the barbarians and the foolish? Why would you do that? That's low class. But Paul is not ashamed. Or on the opposite end of the spectrum, maybe the lowly and the poor and the foolish, and they've come to the gospel and they're thinking, you know, why would you even try to speak to government officials? They're too far gone. They're too wise for their own good. And Paul is saying, look, I'm not ashamed. Greek or barbarian, wise or foolish, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. In fact, Paul says that he is a debtor to these people. The verse is actually ordered like this: it says, To both the Greeks and the barbarians, to both the wise and the foolish, a debtor am I.

9:50So Paul considers himself obligated. He feels like he has this debt to pay to all of these groups. And we hear about this elsewhere. We heard about it in the scripture reading we had this morning from Acts 20, that he is supposed to preach this message. We also hear about it in 1 Corinthians. Listen to this. This is 1 Corinthians 9, verse 13. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple? And those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings. In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaimed The gospel should get their living by the gospel. Okay, so what is he talking about? He's talking about how in the Old Testament, the temple servants would have partaken, they would have been blessed and paid for by the fact that they're serving in the temple. In the same way, God has commanded that servants of the gospel can be paid for that, that they can earn their living that way. Well, listen to what he says next. Verse 15, but I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision, for I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.

11:15For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. Did you hear that? If I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting, for necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. You can tell what he's saying, right? He's saying, Look, I have to preach the gospel.

11:54That's the task that the Lord has commanded me to do. And so I can't boast about. How great I've been preaching the gospel because I have to, anyways. That's my stewardship. And so, as he's thinking about his future reward in heaven, and he's thinking about when he's going to be standing face to face with the Lord, he says, Well, then I'm going to do what he says to do, but I am also going to do it free of charge. And so, now he has this ground of boasting, in a sense. Now, he has this reward. You see what he's saying? But what I wanted us to see was that he has this obligation, this stewardship that has been given to him, this necessity, so that he actually has to. This is his job. That's what came with his apostleship. This is his duty. And I believe that that's what he's saying back in Romans 1:14. I am a debtor. I am under obligation. This is what he must do, is preach to all these different people, the Greek and the barbarian, the wise and the foolish. This is what he must do. And thus, verse 15, thus my eagerness to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. So, Rome was this giant city, this giant melting pot. It's a place that would have had all of these different groups: Greek, barbarian, foolish, and wise.

13:25And so, he's eager to get there because he knows that he's obligated to preach to all these groups. That's his job. What about you? Are you above reaching out to the poor and lowly with the gospel? Do you consider some people too foolish to wrap their minds around the gospel? Are you beneath reaching out with the gospel to the smart and the powerful, the high-up people in your company or in the government? Do you assume that they are too wise to listen?

14:12Paul didn't. Paul knew that the gospel was for everyone, and we should remember the same thing. And if you are not a believer, if you have never become a Christian, listen to me now. The gospel is for everyone, including you. It's good news for you. You might be a senior research professor at AM, but you are not too smart for the gospel. You are not too poor for the gospel. You are not too foolish for the gospel. This gospel is good news for you. It doesn't matter who you are.

14:54Second, it doesn't matter where you are spiritually. It doesn't matter. matter where you are. You could be far from God. You could have grown up in the church. You could have grown up as an atheist. You could even now be running at full speed in the opposite direction from God. But the gospel is still for you. It doesn't matter where you are. Look at verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So first Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel. So remember, this might have come up because he just mentioned barbarians. He just mentioned the foolish. And so some people might be thinking, you must be ashamed. But Paul is saying, I am not ashamed. Paul does not think that way. He is proud of this message that touches the high and the low. Why?

16:01Look again. I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation. It is the power of God for salvation. This is the way God works. He moves and he saves people through the gospel. That is the energy, the work behind what God is doing. Is doing in people's lives. It is through the gospel. It is the power of God to save. So it doesn't matter where you are spiritually, if you've never come to believe the gospel, because it's not you that does the work. And you can remember this if you already are a believer. It didn't matter where you were spiritually when you came to the Lord, because it wasn't you that did the work, it was the Lord doing the work through the gospel. So you don't have to wait until you're right with the Lord before you can come and believe in his Son. That's impossible, anyways. You can never be right with the Lord.

17:09God is the one who works through his gospel, so anyone can come because he does it. And you know what the power of God is. Verse 20 of this chapter will say that actually everybody knows what the power of God is. We see it in creation, and it's undeniable that there is a divine creator who is extremely powerful to create all that we see. Everybody has seen that there is a powerful creator. And if you've read the Old Testament, you know even better. You know even more about the power of God, that he's the one who can control the weather, that he's the one who can topple empires and conquer nations, and he also conquers hearts.

18:01He's powerful enough to change hearts. And how does he do it? How does he change these hearts? Where does the power come from to do this? It is through his gospel. God's power works through the gospel. That's how he saves people. And so, of course, back to what Paul is saying, of course, Paul couldn't be ashamed of this, right? If he knows, and he's seen a million times, maybe not a million, but a lot of times, he's seen that the gospel is so powerful to change people's hearts, and he knows that this is the way that God is working, then of course he's not going to be ashamed. Maybe others would scoff at all the people he's talking to, but of course he is not going to be ashamed of this message. It is the power of God.

18:56I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to everyone who believes. So again, he's emphasizing this point that he's already emphasized, that it's universal, just like we saw in verse 14 and 15. This gospel is universal. And we're about to study that. We're going to study for several chapters in Romans about the wrath of God, the great and terrifying wrath of God, and how it is on all of us before we believe in Christ.

19:31How God is rightly angry with sinners, and sinners are rightly condemned forever. And so we need salvation. And this little phrase, to everyone who believes, it tells us two things. It tells us who can get salvation from this wrath, and how do you get it? Who can get it? Everyone. That's what he says. Everyone can get it. How do we get it? You believe. Everyone who believes can receive salvation, whether Jew or Gentile. And look at that phrase. This is a principle we haven't seen in this letter yet. Look at the phrase, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Why does he say that? To the Jew first and also to the Greek. Do you remember? He says it because this is the pattern that the Lord had given to the apostles. And we see it in the book of Acts. We saw it in our reading today.

20:33We also see it in Acts 1:8. Jesus says, but you, speaking to the apostles, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So this is God's plan. And Jesus tells them that this is what's going to happen, and this is exactly what happens. They start preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, and then as you follow through the book of Acts, you... See the gospel spreading out to all the nations through Paul and through others. To the Jew first, and also to the Greek. And if you didn't catch it, that's everybody, right?

21:16To the Jew first, and also to everyone else who's not a Jew. That's what this idea of Greek likely sums up here. The rest of the world. So again, you have this idea that the gospel is universal. You see, he keeps mentioning this over and over and over and over. It doesn't matter who you are, the gospel is for you. And back to the main point of this work, of this verse, the gospel is how God works. This is where his power is. So do you want to know where the power of God is hidden to change life? Is there someone in your life that you want to see come to the Lord? Are there hundreds that you want to see come to the Lord?

22:02Well, you can't save them by your own power, right? Where did God put his power? He put it in the gospel. And so it doesn't matter what kind of person you're talking to. You could be talking to a child. You could be talking to an old man. You could be talking to somebody who has rejected Christ for a long life of sin. You could be talking to somebody. Someone who has never heard. But wherever they are, it is the gospel that carries the power of God.

22:38Tell them the gospel. Tell them that they are under the wrath of God because of the sins that they've committed. Tell them that Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for our sins so that we can be forgiven. And after he died, he rose three days later. Tell them that. Tell them that he can erase all of their sins and that salvation is for everyone who believes. That's where the power of God is hidden. And if you are an unbeliever, no matter where you are spiritually, you can be saved through this gospel. It is the power of God.

23:26Have you hated God in the past? Have you sinned against Him wildly for a long time? It doesn't matter. God can still change your heart. He's the powerful God. He can still give you new life. He can still work in you. He can change you. And He works through this gospel. So listen to the gospel, this message that Christ died on the cross. Know the gospel. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter where you are. And finally, it doesn't matter what you've done. Verse 17. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Turn with me to Habakkuk chapter 2. Habakkuk chapter 2. I know you don't turn there very often. Maybe you do.

24:27Habakkuk chapter 2. It's one of the small prophets in the Old Testament. Habakkuk chapter 2. If you have read this small prophecy before, then you know that it starts out with Habakkuk praying to the Lord. He has a desperate plea to the Lord to look at the people of Israel and see that the land is unjust. People are doing things that are wicked. And Habakkuk is desperate, and he's crying out for God to do something. Justice has been thwarted. Everything is going wrong. And Habakkuk cries out, and God answers. And God says that he is going to do something unbelievable. He's going to do something astonishing.

25:25He's going to bring the Chaldeans, another name for the Babylonians. He's going to bring the Babylonians against his own people. And in this way, he's going to deal with the injustice in the land of Israel. Well, that certainly isn't the answer that Habakkuk is expecting. Habakkuk says, Deal with your people. There's so much injustice. And God says, Oh, I'm going to deal with them. I'm going to bring the Babylonians. And Habakkuk is astonished. They're more wicked than we are. Why are you bringing them against us? This doesn't seem to be your character, God. You are everlasting. Why would you abandon your people in favor of this other nation? It's the Babylonians that deserve judgment. And Habakkuk brings this astonishment to God in prayer, and then he says this in Habakkuk 2, verse 1. Look at Habakkuk 2, verse 1. I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower and look out to see what he, that's God, will say to me and what I will answer concerning my complaint. So he's saying, okay, I've asked about Israel. He's told me the Babylonians are coming. Now I've asked God, how could this be? The Babylonians are wicked. How could you allow this to happen? I'm going to stand at my watchpost and wait for your answer and see what I'll respond with.

26:54And God gives him an answer. Look at verse 2. And the Lord answered. Me, write the vision. Make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time, it hastens to the end, it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not delay. So he's saying, You might not believe this, and it might be slow to come to pass, but wait, keep waiting, look for this to come true. Verse 4: Behold, his soul is puffed up, it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. Remember that phrase. Verse 5: Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as sheol. Like death, he has never had, he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples. Shall not all these take up their taunt against him with scoffing and riddles for him and say, Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own for how long? And loads himself with pledges. Verse 7. Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be spoil for them, because you have plundered many nations. All the remnants of the people shall plunder you, for the blood of man in violence to the earth, to cities, and all who dwell in them. So God is saying, Yes, I am bringing Babylon against me. My people. And Habakkuk says that is astonishing. Why would you bring this wicked nation against the people? And God says, well, the Babylonians have it coming too.

28:41Yes, God is going to use them to discipline his people. But the Babylonians are those who have plundered many nations, and they're going to be plundered right back under God's control. But look back at verse 4. Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. So God is telling Habakkuk that there are two kinds of hearts. One kind of heart is arrogant. It is the heart of the Babylonian. It is a heart that is puffed up. It is not upright, and it will be judged. But the other heart, in verse 4, the other will live. It is the righteous heart. And that heart is the heart that has faith. So God is making this clear distinction that the righteous by his faith will live. Well, Habakkuk gets it. If you're still in Habakkuk, look over at Habakkuk 3, verse 16. He says, he prays for a long time in chapter 3, thanking the Lord and extolling his greatness. But look at verse 16. I hear and my body trembles, my lips quiver at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones. My legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. You see what he's saying? He's saying, I've got rottenness in my bones because of this message. I tremble, but I trust you, and I'm going to wait for it. He goes on, verse 17: Though the fig trees should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines. The produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food. The flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength. He makes my feet like the deers, and he makes me tread on my high places. Habakkuk has this heart of faith. That's how he responds to the Lord. Yes, Lord, I will trust you. I will wait for what you say is going to come. That is the heart of faith. The arrogant will be judged. The heart of faith will live. And this is the same point that Paul is making back in Romans 1:17. Turn back to our text. Romans 1:17.

31:19For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. In it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. Feeled. How can you get the righteousness of God? You are a sinner. How can you stand in his presence with joy forever? How can you get his righteousness if you, in your house, just got brand new, special, beautiful white carpet? Okay? I would think you're crazy. But let's just say you did that, okay? Sparkling white carpet, and on this day you happen to be dressed in your white tuxedo or white dress, okay? And to the back door comes your dog.

32:13And your muddy dog is covered in filth. Okay, I can tell you what you would not do. You would not let him into your house. He's going to jump on you and ruin your tucks. He's going to ruin your carpet. But I can also tell you what else you wouldn't do. You wouldn't say to the dog, okay, go clean yourself and then you can come in. Right? Your dog would have no hope. Even if your dog mentally knew how to clean himself, he couldn't hold a breath, right? Your dog can't do it.

32:49Well, you are the muddy dog. God doesn't allow our dirty sins to enter his presence. And he Cannot allow you to enter into his eternal kingdom in the mess that you're in. You need righteousness, but you can't clean yourself. It's impossible. You can't erase what you've done. You're permanently stained because of your sins. And only God can clean you. You need the righteousness of God. You are going to stand before him, clean or unclean. And he's either going to welcome you into his eternal home or he's going to kick you out into his eternal hell.

33:42So get clean before the time comes. But you can't do it yourself. Where does this righteousness of God come from? How do you get this perfect, godly, divine righteousness? It's in the gospel. Verse 17, for in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. The gospel reveals to us the righteousness of God. That's how we can get it. The good news that Christ died for your sins. That's how we can get righteousness. Verse 17, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. That last phrase is a little tricky, right? Have you ever wondered about that phrase? From faith for faith, or from faith to faith?

34:36There are a lot of interpretations of that little phrase. Some people think that it is saying that the righteousness of God is from faith to faith in the sense that it starts with faith and then it leads to more faith as we keep growing because of the gospel. Or some people think that it's from God's faithfulness revealed to our eyes of faith, or it's revealed by the apostles' faith to our faith. Some say that it means that it starts and ends with faith, or something like that. I've become convinced that it's actually a common idiom at that time, from something to something. And we have the same thing. We say from door to door.

35:21When we're saying that, we don't mean we're not trying to explain to somebody that we left one door and made our way to another door, right? When we say we're going from door to door, what are we emphasizing? We're going to these different places, we're going to different kinds of doors or something like that. We're moving from place to place. And I think this is the same kind of idiom that he's using, from faith to faith, that he's bringing it back to that idea that the gospel is universal. That idea that he's carried throughout all of this: Greek or barbarian, wise or foolish, Jew or Greek, no matter which person. Is having faith, no matter what kind of person is having faith, the righteousness of God is always revealed through the gospel by faith. That's the key to the gospel. And that's what he's emphasizing. Faith, no matter who you are, is the key to the gospel. And so to prove this point, to give support to his point that faith is what you need if you're going to be made righteous by this gospel, he goes back to the passage that we read in Habakkuk. He says, just as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. And so God had told Habakkuk that the right heart, the heart that's justified before God, the one that's not going to be judged, is the heart that is living by faith. And Paul uses that to say, look, that's the same as the gospel I'm preaching. It's always been this way. That God has always looked on the heart of faith, and it's him who receives the righteousness of God. So, what does all this mean for us? It means we need to live by faith. For any of us who do have faith in Christ, we already have the righteousness of God because of the gospel. And if it's God's righteousness that we have, if we have been made completely clean, then it doesn't matter what we had done before.

37:27We have the righteousness of God. No matter what you've done, the righteousness that you get from the gospel is complete and perfect. This muddy dog might have been way more disgusting than that muddy dog. But after we've been cleaned, we're all 100% spotless, totally righteous with the righteousness of God. Christian, Christian, this is all your hope. This is your life, isn't it? No matter who you were before, no matter how long it took you to believe the gospel, no matter what you had done, the gospel has come into your life.

38:15By faith, you believed in that gospel, and now you have the righteousness of God, perfect 100%, spotless. You have salvation because God has powerfully worked through the gospel in your heart. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Know that it is the power of God to save, just like Paul says. God works through the gospel to save people. And so if you are talking to people, you don't need to be clever enough to persuade them. You don't need to be smart enough to convince them. It's the gospel that does the work. So if it's your loss, Family member, if it's your atheist coworker, if it's your postmodern professor, your Jewish client, whoever it is, the gospel is universal. Paul, remember, Paul said he's under obligation. He's a debtor to go to all these different groups. Well, who put him under that obligation? It was God. Christ was the one who called him to this apostleship. This was God's idea. He's the one who made the gospel be for everyone. He's the one who puts his power into the gospel to change people. It was God's idea. So don't be ashamed of the gospel.

39:42Non-Christian. If you're in this room and you're not a believer, no matter who you are, the gospel is for you. Right now, if you haven't believed in the name of Jesus Christ, if you haven't looked at what he did on the cross and come to him and asked for forgiveness of your sins and had repentance and faith, God can save you. He works powerfully through this good news. He can save you. No matter how hard your heart is, God can break it. He can soften it. He can change it. And you can finally be righteous no matter what you've done. You can have total, perfect righteousness before God.

40:32So, kids, maybe that's you. Maybe you haven't believed the gospel that your parents have believed in. Criminals, that's you. Even pretenders in our body that have been pretending for all this time. Leave your sins and come to God. What have your sins ever done for you? They've given you a moment's pleasure, and then they've damned your soul to hell. What has God done for you? He's offered you perfect righteousness at his own expense by the blood of the cross. He's offered you salvation. He's offered to completely erase your sins. Leave your sins and come to God.

41:29Listen, behind this wall, there are three offices. And after we dismiss today, we're going to bring the Georges up for membership. And then after we dismiss, if you want to talk about this with somebody, we're going to have some pastors in those offices. I'm going to be in the middle office. Matt's going to be in an office. It's not an altar call. We're not going to pressure you into anything. We're not going to trick you into. anything, but if you want to talk about this, if you need somebody to talk to, if you want somebody to pray for you, please come.

42:09Listen, none of your excuses work anymore. We saw that in the passage today. None of your excuses work anymore. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter where you're at spiritually. It doesn't matter what you've done. So maybe you're 10 years old and you're ready to believe the same thing as your parents, or maybe you're 80 years old and you've sinned and you've sinned and you've sinned. It doesn't matter. You can have God's righteousness today and be clean.

42:44So let the gospel come and work in your heart. Come and see us if you need to talk, but pray with me. Father, I pray that all of us would be encouraged as we remember this gospel that saved us, that gave us your righteousness. As we remember that all of us were in different places, that all of us had different histories, that all of us had different families and backgrounds. And yet, because someone wasn't ashamed of the gospel, it came to us. And since your gospel is the power to save, you saved us. And Lord, I pray that we would be encouraged and excited by that, that we would rejoice and give you glory. Not only that Christ went to the cross and died for our sins and rose again. But that you work through that message and you change our heart and you cause us to come to you.

43:38I pray, Lord, that we wouldn't be ashamed of the gospel, but that with joy we could remember that it is the power of God to save. I pray, Lord, that if there is anybody who hasn't believed in you, that they'd stop waiting, that they'd realize none of their excuses work, and that anyone can come to you today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.