• 1 ¶ Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—
• 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures
• 3 regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David,
• 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God, by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
• 5 Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.
• 6 And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
• 7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
  (Romans 1:1-7)

Last Sunday we zeroed in on the author of the Book of Romans, Paul the Apostle, who was formerly Saul the persecuting Pharisee. Today we are looking at the message of the Book in a nutshell, for that is what we find in Romans 1:1-7. The Book is about "THE GOSPEL," and these verses are a brief summary of the entire Book of Romans.

The word "Gospel" in Greek is the word "euanggelion." It is a combination of two Greek words: "eu" which means good. We use this prefix in English words sometimes. For example, a "euphemism," is a nice phrase used to describe something that might not normally be described in a nice way. A "euphonium" is a musical instrument of the brass family, similar to a tuba. And so on. The other Greek word is "angellion" which means "message." So the Greek word for Gospel means "good message" or even "good news." The word "Gospel" in English also comes from two old English words: "God's spell," which really means "God's story."

What can we learn about the Gospel from these seven verses?

There are eight facts about the Gospel in Romans 1:1-7.

I. The Gospel of Paul is GOD'S Gospel, and not a man-created gospel (verse 1).

There are many false gospels gone out into the world, and we need to be aware of that, and we need to be careful about being taken advantage of. We are sheep among wolves.

• 28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
• 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.
• 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.
  (Acts 20:28-30)

• 1 ¶ The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
• 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
  (I Tim 4:1-2)

• 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
• 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
  (2 Tim 4:3-4)

• 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
• 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
  (2 Co 11:3-4)

• 6 ¶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
• 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
• 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
  (Gal 1:6-8)

How can you recognize a false gospel?

• 1. If Jesus is presented as less than fully God and fully man, it is a false gospel.
• 2. If Jesus is presented as someone who used to be only a man, but has now become a god, it is a false gospel.
• 3. If Jesus' resurrection is denied in any way it is a false gospel.
• 4. If Jesus is presented as the husband of Mary Magdalene, it is a false gospel.
• 5. If Jesus' death is presented as not really necessary for our salvation, it is a false gospel.
• 6. If you can be saved from sin, yet continue to live a carnal life without any worries, it is a false gospel.
• 7. If you add to your salvation by good works in any way, or at any time, it is a false gospel.
• 8. If Jesus is presented as just one of many great religious teachers, it is a false gospel.

II. The Gospel of Paul is the gospel that was promised in the Old Testament prophets.

• 14 ¶ So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
• 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
  (Genesis 3:14-15)

Here the serpent represents Satan. The seed of the woman (Jesus) will crush the serpent's head. Satan will strike at Jesus, and will hurt Him (the crucifixion), but not seriously. Jesus will be victorious over Satan.

• 3 Abram fell face down, and God said to him,
• 4 ¶ "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.
  >(Genesis 17:3-4)

Who are these "many nations?" Not just Israel. MANY nations. The Gentiles are included, and will be God's people. Do you have faith in God, as Abraham did? Abraham is called the "father of the faithful." Those who are in Christ are also in the Abrahamic Covenant. See Galatians 3:26-29...

• 26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,
• 27 for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
• 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
• 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

• 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
• 4 ¶ Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
• 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
• 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
  (Isaiah 53:3-6)

And the crucifixion was described in Psalm 22, one thousand years beforehand...

• 7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:
• 8 "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him."
• 9 Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast.
• 10 From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
• 11 ¶ Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no-one to help.
• 12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
• 13 Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me.
• 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me.
• 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.
• 16 Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.
• 17 I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.
• 18 They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

When Jesus began His ministry He declared that He had come to fulfill that which was promised by the Prophet Isaiah.

• 16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read.
• 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
• 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,
• 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour."
• 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him,
• 21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
  (Luke 4:16-21)

III. The Gospel of Paul centers on the Son of God (Romans 1:3).

He is a descendent of King David.

In the original Greek this sentence is much more plain and concrete: "genomenou ek spermatos David kata sarka." Literally translated this says that Jesus was "born of the sperm of David according to the flesh."

The Bible is VERY blunt that Jesus was truly a man, not just a spirit or an angel or an hallucination. David's lineage is traced through His mother Mary, and her genealogy is recorded for us in Luke chapter three, and we see that Jesus came through David's son Nathan (Luke 3:31). This is important because Joseph's genealogy (in Matthew 1) passes through "Jeconiah," and his descendents were cursed that they could never sit on Israel's throne.

This is what the LORD says: "Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule any more in Judah."
(Jeremiah 22:30)

He is truly human, yet also the true Son of God Himself.

• 26 ¶ In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
• 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
• 28 The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you."
• 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
• 30 But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God.
• 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
• 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,
• 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end."
• 34 "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"
• 35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
  (Luke 1:26-35)

Jesus is truly a human being, a Jew, a descendent of King David of the tribe of Judah. A son of Adam and a son of Abraham, and therefore qualified to be our representative, and our sacrifice. Yet He is also the Son of God. This is vital, because it means that His death on the cross was of infinite value. The second person of the Trinity, the spotless Lamb of God, died for you and for me. Jesus must be fully God, or His sacrifice would have limited value. He must also be truly Man, or He could not have died, and He could not have been the "second Adam from above."

• 45 So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.
• 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.
• 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.
• 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.
• 49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
  (2 Co 15:45-49)

IV. The Gospel of Paul hinges on the Resurrection of Jesus (Romans 1:4).

The power of the cross is not simply in Jesus death, but in the resurrection. The resurrection is the proof, the guarantee, of the efficacy of the atonement of Jesus on the cross. If the resurrection had not happened, the death on the cross would have been proved invalid.

• 12 ¶ But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
• 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
• 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
• 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.
• 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.
• 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
• 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.
• 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
• 20 ¶ But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
• 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
• 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
  (I Co 15:12-22)

• 1 ¶ Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.
• 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
• 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
• 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
  (I Co 15:1-4)

The preaching of the Gospel is incomplete without the preaching of the resurrection. Jesus overcame Satan, and He overcame death. "Why seek ye the Living among the dead," said the angels to the women who came to the tomb on Easter morning. "He is not here. He is risen, as He said!"

V. The Gospel of Paul demands that Christians acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus (Romans 1:4-5).

LORD. That's His name: "Jesus Christ our Lord." The word "Lord" in Greek is "kuriou." It is used scores to times in the New Testament. My Greek Lexicon says that it can be translated "master, generally owner -- one who has full control of something - God."

Some people think they can received Jesus as SAVIOR, but not as LORD. You can't do that. You can't chop Him into pieces, and take the piece you like, and leave the others. If you receive Jesus you must receive Him as He is: SAVIOR and LORD.

When Paul was teaching the doctrine of salvation by grace, he anticipated people who would twist the message of freedom into licentiousness.

• 20 ...where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
• 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
• 1 ¶ What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase?
• 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
  (Romans 5:20--6:2)

"By no means" is an interesting Greek phrase: "mei genoito." It is the strongest possible negative. "No, never, noway, nohow, no, no, no, a thousand times no!" would be a good translation.

Those who say that they are Christians, but continue to live in sin, to wallow in sin, to pursue sin, to have a sinful lifestyle, are fooling themselves, and trying to fool everyone else. "Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

In Romans 1:5 Paul writes of "the obedience that comes from faith." We are never saved by our works of obedience. BUT, when we become Christians, our faith impells us to live for Christ, and to be obedient to His commands and desires. We are called to be "saints" (Romans 1:7). That means literally we are called to be "hagiois," in Greek: holy ones.

VI. The Gospel of Paul is a Gospel of God's Gracious Sovereign Power in Salvation (Romans 1:5-7).

Paul speaks here in verses 5 and 7, and in the rest of the Book of Romans. Quick definition: Grace is the "unmerited favor of God." Unmerited means you don't deserve it, you can't earn it. God just graciously gives repentance, and faith and regeneration and sanctification and glorification. You don't deserve any of it. When you get to Heaven, you can never claim ANY of the credit at all, period, whatsoever.

• 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-
• 9 not by works, so that no-one can boast.
  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Grace is similar to mercy, but not exactly the same. MERCY is God forgiving your sins, and refraining from punishing you. GRACE is going beyond mercy, and showering you with blessings, which is what God does for us.

This doctrine of God's sovereign grace in salvation is a GREAT WATERSHED in the history of Christian theology, because there have been many churches and Christians who disagree with the sovereign grace of God in salvation.

This theological discussion has been going on for over a thousand years. St. Augustine and Pelagius battled this out in the first 20 years of the fifth century. (See R. C. Sproul's article on Augustine vs Pelagius: http://www.leaderu.com/theology/augpelagius.html

Pelagius was a monk from Great Britain (he also lived in Rome, Palestine and N. Africa), who taught that the doctrine of original sin was wrong. Basically he taught that babies were born without sinful natures or inclinations, just like Adam and Eve before they sinned. They do not inherit any sinful tendancies from their parents. Based on that belief he taught that sin did NOT kill the human spirit and will, but only injured it. In other words, without any extra or outside help from God, people are naturally able of their own free will to choose to repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

Augustine said: Pelagius is wrong and his teachings are contrary to the Bible. And Augustine was able to back up his views:

• 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
• 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
  (I Co 15:21-22)

• 1 ¶ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
• 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
• 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
• 4 ¶ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
• 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
  (Ephesians 2:1-5)

So, Augustine was right. The Bible says that all human beings became spiritually dead in Adam (not SICK, not WOUNDED, but DEAD). And it is God who makes us alive, even when we are dead. So salvation is all a gift of God. He gives us repentance, He gives us faith, He gives us salvation.

Here in Romans 1:5-7 we see Paul's repeated use of the word "called." The reason we have come to Christ is that God has called us to Him. Why did YOU become a Christian, and your brother, who heard the same Gospel preaching, did NOT become a Christian? Is it because you are better? Because you are more deserving? Because you made a better choice of your own free will? Will you in Heaven have something to credit to your own account? No. This underlines the teaching of Augustine, and the Bible, that salvation is ALL of Grace, and NONE of works.

Theologians have outlined God's calling as general and special, as simply "broadcast" and as "efficacious," or compelling.

Obviously, there is a general call from God, from the preaching of the Gospel, that is not compelling. There are many people who hear a Gospel sermon, and respond by saying "that's not for me. I don't want to become a Christian." They have received a sort of a call from God, because God has brought the preaching of the Gospel to them.

But there is also an efficacious call. There is a compelling call. There is a call that is backed up by the converting power of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the person who hears the Gospel. There is a call to which you simply cannot say "No." It is too powerful. This is perfectly examplified in the case of Paul's own conversion. One minute he is a Christ-hater, on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians and have them imprisoned. The next minute he is knocked off his donkey by a lightning bolt from Christ, and is compelled to believe. He was not compelled AGAINST HIS WILL, but his will was overpowered by Jesus, and he willingly believed in Christ.

Paul says often in his epistles that everyone who becomes a Christian receives this powerful calling from the Holy Spirit.

• Ro 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
• Ro 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
• Ro 9:24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
• 1Co 1:2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ- their Lord and ours:
• 1Co 1:9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
• 1Co 1:24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
• 1Co 1:26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
• 2Th 2:14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 1Ti 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
• 2Ti 1:9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life-not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time...

Because of Augustine's efforts, Pelagius was declared a heretic by the Council of Carthage in 418. During the Reformation of the 16th century the same doctrines were battled out. Martin Luther and the Calvinists defended Augustine against the doctrines of Arminius. Today, if you believe that people are born in sin, and completely unable to repent or believe apart from God's gracious gift, we say you are a Calvinist. The "watch words" of the Reformation were the Five Solas, which included....

• Salvation is only by the Grace of God.
• Salvation is only through Faith, and not by works.

If you believe that everyone in the world has a spirit which is NOT dead in sin, but is capable of repenting and believing without any influence from God, then you are called an Arminian. Only a few denominations in our time are Calvinistic in their doctrine: the PCA, or Orthodox PC, a few smaller Reformed denominations. But the Baptists, the Methodists, the Catholics, the Church of God, the Assemblies of God, the Episcopalians and so on have all rejected the doctrines of St. Augustine and the Reformation. Like all the other pastors in the PCA, I believe the Bible teaches that no one can be saved by his own free will apart from special help from God, and so I am a Calvinist. I believe we are all DEAD in our trespasses and sins before God saves us. I believe in the GRACE of God.

• 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-
• 9 not by works, so that no-one can boast.
  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

VII. The Gospel of Paul is the Gospel of Love (Romans 1:7).

• The Bible says God is love.
• The Bible says that salvation comes to us because God is a loving God (John 3:16-17)

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

Some people can't stand the doctrine of the sovereignty of God over salvation, because they have this idea that God is NOT love, and has only chosen a few of the human race for salvation. I say to you that GOD IS LOVE, and that He will see to it that the vast majority of the human race repent, and believe in Jesus Christ, and spend eternity in Heaven with Him.

Jesus said, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself."

Jesus taught the parable of the wheat and the tares. He said the field is the world. And He said it was not a field of tares with a little bit of wheat here and there, but it was a wheat field with some tares scattered through it. It is a wheat field, not a tare field!

John the Baptist preached that Jesus would take away the sin of THE WORLD: Joh 1:29 "The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

Joh 4:42 They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world."

• 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
• 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
  (2 Co 5:18-19)

• 1 ¶ My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
• 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
  I Jn. 2:1-2

The Apostle John says that Jesus came into this world to destroy the work of the Devil, and to restore mankind to Paradise. Will Jesus fail or will Jesus succeed? I can't conceive of Jesus being a failure. If only a small minority of mankind goes to Heaven, what kind of victory is that?? I believe Jesus will succeed. I believe that somehow, someway, God will bring about repentance and faith in the hearts of the majority of the human race. The Gospel is a Gospel of LOVE.

VIII. The Gospel of Paul is a Gospel of Peace (Romans 1:7).

The Bible teaches us that every human being's first need is PEACE WITH GOD. Note carefully the word: WITH. People are not naturally in a state of peace with God. We are naturally in a condition of WAR.

• Romans 8:7 "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
• James 4:4 "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."

"Enmity" is the old English word for being "on the outs." Being in a state of rebellious contention. The Bible says that's how we are, until we surrender to Christ.

The message of the Bible is that God is NOT well pleased with mankind. That is impossible because of our sinfulness. Most of the human race is living in a condition of rebellion against God and His laws, and there exists a state of enmity between God and Man. Paul was explicit about this in Romans 1:17-32:

• 17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
• 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
• 19 ¶ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
• 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
• 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
• 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
• 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
• 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
• 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is for ever praised. Amen.
• 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
• 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
• 28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worth while to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
• 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
• 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
• 31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
• 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practise them.

We need peace WITH God. We need to be reconciled. Mankind is in a position of warfare and rebellion against God, and he needs to surrender. Jesus came to earth to reconcile all who will repent and trust in God. This happens when a person comes to Christ for salvation. He repents and believes, and he is reconciled, and has PEACE WITH GOD. You cannot have the peace OF God in your heart, until you first have peace WITH God.

The Peace of God: inner peace, calm joy, founded in faith in God's love, protection and provision.

• Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
• Joh 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
• Eph 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
• Eph 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I know of Christians who seemingly don't have very much peace in their hearts. They are worried about the economy, their jobs, their children, their marriage, rising food prices, getting the car fixed, paying for school for the kids, health insurance and doctor's bills, and the list goes on and on.

The Bible commands Christians not to be anxious, not to worry. But how to obey that command? There are two keys to peace: The first key is faith. We must BELIEVE that Jesus has overcome the world. We must believe that God is in control. We pray to God about our problems, and then we GIVE THANKS that He will make things work out OK.

The second key is submission. Mary the mother of Jesus is a great example. Consider her situation when the angel appears, and tells her that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and will give birth to the Messiah. She is a young teen ager. She is betrothed to Joseph, but not yet married. What thoughts might have gone through her mind! "What will Joseph think of me when he sees that I'm pregnant, and the child is not his? What will my family think of me? What will my synagogue think of me? What will my village think of me?"

But what does she say? Luke 1:38 "I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." She completely submitted her will to God's will.

Conclusion: The Gospel of Paul: What is it? Here are eight quick facts about the Gospel:

• It's God's Gospel, not a man-made Gospel.
• It's the Gospel prophesied in the Old Testament.
• It's the Gospel that's centered on God's Son.
• It's the Gospel that hinges on the resurrection of Jesus.
• It's the Gospel that makes Christians lead holy lives.
• It's the Gospel that illustrates the Gracious Sovereignty of God over salvation
• It's the Gospel of Love.
• It's the Gospel of Peace.