Last week, we talked about the greatest word in scripture. And I was suggesting that the greatest word in scripture was the idea of love. If you were here last week, you might have heard me say at the very end that if we have a service here in which we are all collectively gathered together to worship the Lord's name, and you do not leave with the information that God loves you, and you ought to love God and love one another, then we have failed.
That was the push at the end of my sermon. Well, there's also something else that I would be remiss if you did not know if you were gathering together with the Lord's people and you walked out confused or unsure about the idea of how to get into the love of God and have salvation for your soul. And so this morning, what I'd like to do is talk about an easy way for us to walk through just one simple book of the Bible, the Book of Romans, and talk about what it means for us to have salvation.
One of the greatest messages that we have in the Gospel is the idea of Luke chapter 19 and verse 10. Jesus says these words, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. So the idea of us knowing how to be saved by the Lord is one of those important lessons that we should all be very clear about.
Now, if you were here about a year ago, this slide show may seem somewhat familiar because I preached this message almost exactly one year ago. And so if you've been here for a year, this is going to be old hat to you. Whatever in the world that phrase means.
Got an old hat you like? You're familiar with it, I guess? I don't know.
Whatever the case, we do have, thankfully, a lot of individuals that have joined us in the last year that did not hear that message. And I want to be very clear. This message is for all of us to either to understand and apply to our own current situations when it comes to salvation for our souls.
Or if you find this lesson and you are already in a saved Christian state, this is an easy way for you to take some simple notes and to show someone else the good news of Jesus Christ. We have had this graphic up behind me on this wall of Matthew chapter 28 and verse 19, the so-called Great Commission from our Lord Jesus, to go into all the nations and teach the Gospel, to go and make disciples. And so if you are someone who has struggled with trying to condense the volume of Scripture to be able to share with someone what they have to do to achieve salvation, then I would suggest that you follow along with us and just notate these verses.
And if you just walk someone or yourself through these lines of thought, it will be somewhat helpful to kind of show someone the so-called Roman's road to salvation. So how does someone be saved through the blood of Jesus Christ? Let's begin our conversation at the beginning in Romans chapter 3 beginning in verse 21.
There is something that we have to acknowledge and identify when it comes to our spiritual state before we can talk about how we are saved from our sin. Romans chapter 3 in verse 21, the Apostle Paul writes these words, But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. We'll pause right there and break that down just a little bit for us.
God is a righteous God. God is the definition of righteousness. That which is right is how you define righteousness.
So God is always right all the time. We would not know what right is apart from God's divine character. And it says right here that the law and the prophets, meaning the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, reveal to us that God is righteous.
The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. How do we as people who understand that God is righteous and holy understand or ascertain holiness and righteousness for ourselves? Paul says it's through faith in Jesus Christ.
For there is no distinction. Why? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
There's one simple fact that we must establish first and foremost that we are all people who have committed sin against a righteous and holy God. There have been very, very few occasions in my ministry in which I've had a conversation with someone and started with this foundation, this framework of do you believe that God is righteous and holy? And they say yes.
I go, do you think that you've lived up to the standard of how God wants you to live? And they say no. I go, what does that mean for you and your salvation?
It means that I am lost. I have sinned before a holy and righteous God, and I am in need of forgiveness of that sin. That's the foundation.
If you don't think that you need salvation, there's no need for us to have a conversation about how to achieve salvation. I've had a couple of people be prideful enough to say, I've never committed a sin. And I go, well, can you tell me how you've done that?
Because I know me, and I know the way that I've chosen to live in my life, and I know that I fail and I fail and I fail, and God knows that about me. That's why He gave me a way through His grace and mercy to be saved from my mistakes and from my sinfulness. So starting with that foundation, you have to first ascertain, are you someone who has sinned and therefore in need of forgiveness from God?
Once that foundation has been laid, you can move on to Romans 6 and verse 22. If you believe that you have sinned against a righteous and holy God, where does that leave you? Where does that leave me in light of God's Word?
Romans 6, 22 and 23. But now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves or servants of God. The fruit you get leads to sanctification and is end eternal life.
Where were we before we had forgiveness? Because the wages of sin is death. And here is the dichotomy.
Here is the flip side. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So if you can understand and you believe that you have sinned against a righteous and holy God, where does that sin lead you?
It leads you to spiritual and physical death in this life. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. If you don't believe that you're lost, then you're not able to benefit from the idea of what Romans has to say about salvation.
The wages of sin is death. If you've committed sin, you are walking down the path to death. But we have some good news for you.
And the good news is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The fact that He has already died for you on the cross. Though He never committed sin, He was willing to give up His life in your stead to pay the debt that you owe a righteous and holy God.
The free gift of God is what? Eternal life. But where, folks, is that eternal life?
Paul just says it is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The question is, how do we get into that eternal life, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? We then go to Romans 6, beginning in verse 1.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? So here is the line of thinking that Paul is trying to have a dialogue with.
Is grace a good thing or a bad thing? It's a good thing. So you would like more grace, would you?
Right? I know I would. The line of thinking is, well, if grace is good and I want more grace, should I keep committing sin that I can get more grace, which is good?
Paul says, by no means. You're missing something here, folks.
How can we, who died to sin, still live in it? Paul is saying, you forget your spiritual state. When you are in Christ, you are dead to the old man of sin that you were.
You are a new creation. He says, do you not know? And whenever Paul says, don't you know?
It's something very foundational, right? Don't you know that all of us who have been baptized or immersed into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Now, this for me is new information. Here is the new information. We were in a spiritual state of sin against a pure and holy righteous God.
I know that that sin leads me towards spiritual death and condemnation. I don't want that to be my eternal future. And Paul says that salvation is in Christ Jesus.
Salvation is in Christ Jesus. Paul says here in Romans 6, 1-4 that we get into Christ Jesus by dying to our old man of sin and death. That takes place during the idea of water baptism, water immersion.
He says that when you go down into the water, it's just like Jesus going down into the tomb after the crucifixion. And then when you rise out of that water, it's just like Jesus walking out of the tomb. You are going down into a spiritual, symbolic, spiritual death to your old man of sin, and you're being raised to walk in the newness of life.
That is when you are born again. That is your spiritual birthday, if you will. That is when things get washed away by the blood of Jesus and the idea of going down into the water and then being resurrected.
If we keep reading in Romans 6, going down to verse 12 now, Paul says this, Therefore, do not let sin reign in your immortal physical body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members or body parts to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. And your members or body parts to God as instruments for righteousness, because sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
How do we go from the law of sin and death? If you sin, therefore you die by becoming born again. And two, Jesus Christ, having your sins washed away, where you are brought from spiritual death to spiritual life.
You are no longer under that law of sin and death, but now under the grace of God and of Jesus the Christ. Y'all follow me? Is it complicated?
Hopefully not. If it's complicated, it's my fault, not the Gospel's fault. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
The wages of sin is death. I don't want that to be my future, therefore I put that old man to death, Romans 6, 1-4. Through water baptism, I am born again.
I have newness of life, and now I strive to serve a grace and a loving God who did all this for me. That's the Gospel. That's the good news.
We are all in the same sinful boat, but we're also in the same boat where we can look at the grace and mercy of God and be born again to walk in newness of life. What is our spiritual state after we are born again? All you have to do is go to Romans chapter 8.
If you continue to read through Romans chapter 7, Paul's got a problem within his own heart, his own mind, and we all have the same struggle that Paul had. His struggle was, well, sometimes I do the things that I don't want to do, and I don't do the things I know I should do. Who can deliver me from this flippant idea of serving myself and serving sin and serving God?
Who can save me from this? In Romans chapter 8 and verse 1, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are, where? In Christ Jesus.
We've all committed sin and fallen short. The wages of sin is death, but the good news is we can be in Christ. And when you are in Christ, you have eternal life.
And when you are in Christ, there is now no condemnation for even you and even me. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free, where? In Christ Jesus, from the law of sin and death.
We can be set free. We can be born again. We can walk in newness of life.
We can have eternal life in Christ. Simply obeying the Gospel and taking advantage of the sacrifice that Jesus was for our sin can make sure that we know that we are saved, we are on our way towards heaven to be with God forever more, and to experience that love of God in a real way. What do we do then?
In Romans chapter 12, in verse 1, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, people who have obeyed the Gospel, people who are born again Christians, who have salvation, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. In the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament law, they were to make animal sacrifices continually, to simply cover their sins up, for at the most one year, Paul says, now that you've had the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ shed for you, and now that you have been washed by the perfect, holy blood of Jesus, you are now the sacrifice. You are the one to live in this world, as part of his body, to work in his stead, and to be a shining light, reflecting the love of God in your life.
Paul says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable, and complete or perfect. We begin the conversation by admitting that we are someone who ascend against a righteous and holy God. We are convicted by that and by the knowledge that the wages of sin is death.
We deserve death. A righteous and holy God said that to us, but thanks be to God, he has given us a way to escape that death that we deserve. We escape that death because he died for us on the cross.
He was pure, he was righteous, he was holy, but he went to the cross for me, and he went to the cross for you. And when you are baptized into Christ, you put on Christ. Just like he went into the tomb dead, and he walked with newness of life out of that tomb three days later, we symbolize that by going down to water baptism, we walk out of the baptistery with newness of life.
And then Paul is encouraging us here that now that we have been born again, we experience the grace and the mercy of God, we are to live for him for the rest of our lives. And when we go to him in eternity, or he comes back to take us home, that is where we'll be in the eternal realm, with eternal life, experiencing the love of God forever. That is possible because of the good news of Jesus Christ.
I took advantage of this message when I was 15 years old. I knew I was lost. I knew the decisions that I had made in my life were not adding up to me having a good, happy, fulfilled life.
When someone shared the good news of Jesus Christ with me, I couldn't wait to start over. I wanted all my sins washed away. I wanted a clean, blank slate, for I could try to serve my God in this life.
That convicted me. Maybe there's someone among our number who needs to start over, who's never truly obeyed the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. If that is you this morning, tomorrow is not guaranteed or promised to any of us.
I beg you, hear the simple plan of salvation, take advantage of the simple commandments that we have to do to access the mercy and grace of God, and start your spiritual life over together with us today. If you are someone who has been a bit fuzzy on how to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone in your neighborhood, in your workplace, a family member, I would encourage you to look at your notes that you took, and simply walk someone through this train of thought. It is deep, it is spiritual, it's sometimes complex, but the simple saving grace and love of Jesus Christ and how to access that is not complicated.
You can do it all from one simple book of the New Testament. If you have a need to obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to have your sins washed away, or you need the prayers of your loving church family this morning for any reason, please respond by coming forward and talking to me or seeing one of our shepherds at the doors. If you have a need, please come forward now as we stand and we sing.