Christ - the passport to enter the kingdom

Romans 1:16 says: "....for I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, because in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed by faith and by faith as it is written, but the just shall live by faith."

And then he continues to develop that idea from another perspective and says: “.... because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all impiety and injustice of men who stop with injustice the truth For what is known of God is manifest to them, for God manifested it to them. For the invisible things of him, of God, his eternal power, his deity, have been made clearly visible since the creation of the world, being understood through the things made in such a way that they are without excuse. For having known God, they did not glorify him as God, nor gave him thanks, but were puffed up in their reasonings, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of corruptible man, birds, four-legged creatures, and reptiles, for which reason, that is, as a consequence of that attitude and posture, for which God also -this is God's reaction to that attitude- gave them over to filth in the lusts of their hearts, so that they dishonored their own bodies among themselves, since they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, honoring and worshiping creatures before the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."

I am going to leave it there and perhaps we will have occasion to mention some of the verses that follow, but to save time..... You will remember that last Sunday I told you that I was going to continue with the Romans theme. A few weeks ago the Lord led me to stop at Chapter 8 of Romans, it was not my intention when I began to preach on the initial theme of continuing with Romans. I only wanted to touch on a text from there, but seeing the beauty of Chapter 8 and the coherence of this Chapter, the Lord directed us to 4 sermons around Chapter 8. And I realized that there is so much richness in the epistle to the Romans and so much potential to instruct the people of God on essential truths of the faith, that I then decided to continue, and so I have gone back, to the beginning and in the following Sundays as the Lord gives me the opportunity I will be working with you different texts from the book of Romans, to continue our learning process of these very important truths that this wonderful book outlines.

So, I started last Sunday by reading in verses 16 and 17. These two verses, 16 and 17, kind of sum up everything else. What follows after those two verses is simply a development of that essential idea raised in the two verses, 16 and 17. Everything else is elaboration.

The Apostle Paul was a very highly educated man and as a scholar, intellectual that he was, he establishes his thesis, establishes the essence of what he is going to develop, of his conference or of his treatise and then he develops it point by point.

In other words, what you are reading here in verse 16 and 17 is like the totality of this very complex book, which is considered the greatest jewel of Christian theology. Romans was the book that Martin Luther, a Catholic monk, used in the 16th century to begin what became the Protestant Reformation, of which we are descendants, four-odd centuries later. It totally changed the course of Christianity in the 16th century and it still has an impact.

But Romans was the book that touched the heart of that monk and led him to seek a reformation of his church, which ultimately ended in a total break, which became the evangelical Protestant movement of which we are. descendants today.

What moved Martin Luther? What was it that caused the clash between what he read and what the church stood for at the time? A revolutionary idea. The idea that salvation is by faith alone and not by works, or by any ritual you do, or affiliation with a group or a church, simply believing God what he says.

And that is why here Paul, when he says for example, “....I am not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to....” who? Good question there. Is it salvation to the whole world? The Gospel so that all creation, all men and women of all nations of all times are saved and without any discrimination? One would like it to be so, but it is not so.

It says, "...for salvation to whom?...for salvation to whom, to everyone who believes", which means that if a person does not believe in the Gospel, they do not receive the salvation for which the Gospel was destined. That is very important.

So, we said last Sunday that he wanted to announce the Gospel to the Romans for a simple reason, he says, because I'm not ashamed. In Rome Christians were persecuted, they were ashamed and denigrated, and Paul said, I am not ashamed of preaching the Gospel because I know what the Gospel is, it is the power of God.

Why do we share the Gospel with other people? It is not because we believe that we are better than anyone, or because we are insensitive to the beliefs of others. It is because we are convinced that there is something in the Gospel that is not found in any other human concept, it is the power, the energy of God, the grace of God is expressed through the truths and teachings of the Gospel.

And what is the Gospel? Good news. The Greek word evangelion means precisely that, good news, good news. And what is the good news? That man no longer has to be at enmity with God because of his sin. That God is no longer necessarily angry with man, that none of us have to perish in our sin because God has already opened a way and provided a means for man and God to be reconciled. And that way is Christ Jesus.

There is salvation, there is opportunity. You see, when man is without Christ he is condemned, he is devoid of all hope. Last night while I was preaching here to the group in English, we were talking about that, that when one is without God there are a series of things that happen.

For example, the Apostle Paul in Ephesians says that.... in Chapter 2. Let's see in verse 11, he says ".... therefore remember that in other times, you Gentiles at that time you were without Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, alienated from the covenants of the promises, without hope and without God in the world.”

That is the condition of the man who is without Christ, or the woman who is without Christ. He is lost, he is without hope, he has no access to God. You cannot communicate with the creator. That is why Christians insist on the person of Jesus, because the Bible has told us that the only one who can bring man to God and effect reconciliation between God and man is Jesus Christ. It is not because we believe that we are better than anyone, or that Islam or Buddhism, or Hinduism or the other religions of the world, it is not like we are proudly saying, we are better than you. It is simply that the book to which we have attached ourselves tells us that only in Christ is there salvation and hope for man. That man without Christ is lost and that only Christ can take him out of his perdition and give him salvation and eternal life.

The Lord Jesus Christ himself said it, I am the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father if it is not through me. And he also said that all who came before him were thieves and robbers.

I'm not saying that, I wouldn't dare to say that. The Lord Jesus Christ said it with words well, well... now, one has two options: 1) either say, he did not say that, I do not want to believe it and I neutralize it and delete it from the Gospel as if one would have the right to choose what one wants from the Bible. Or one says, well, it is what the word says, I hold myself to the word, so I have to believe that too.

The fact is, brothers, that Paul felt good, well attached to the Gospel and announced it where he could, because the Gospel is power to save people, to get them out of their darkness and darkness. Every person who is without Christ is in darkness and darkness.

As we saw previously the carnal man, the man without God is subject to the world, subject to the flesh and subject to Satan. Three things, he is a slave, and the only one who can redeem....

What does the word redeem mean? It means to buy a person out of slavery. How did Christ buy us? Through the shedding of his blood on the cross. The blood of Christ, his life, was the payment that God's justice received for our sins.

So, Paul understanding that, he says, I am happy and proud to announce the Gospel because I know that the Gospel is power for the salvation of everyone who believes. Before you can receive the power of God in your life, before you can use the blessings that are in the word of the Lord, all the promises, all the life that is in Jesus Christ, all the potential that the word of God, before you can have a dialogue with God, you have to believe what God has said in his word, that Jesus Christ is the son of God, who came into the world in the flesh, who died on the cross for your sins, and that he was raised to the third God. And that if you believe that Jesus is who he says he is, then you too can be adopted and be made a child of God.

The word says that to those who received him, to those who believed in his name, power was given to become children of God. That is the essence of the Gospel, brothers.

And that's why Paul says, I'm not ashamed of that Gospel. You know, Paul was very insistent that the Gospel is first and foremost a matter of power, of energy, not of words. It is not a theology, it is not a series of teachings, that is not what saves, what saves is the power of God in your life, through the presence of the holy spirit.

When we prayed for Brother Eloy this morning, we were making contact with the power of God. I could stand here and simply preach a religious, theological treatise and you go home just like you came in. But what makes this time that you are investing valuable, is that you are having contact with the holy spirit through worship, coming up front and praying, or receiving prayer, hearing the word of the Lord, all of that is releasing a power that is having an impact on your life and is smoothing out the rough spots and contaminations in your life. The Gospel is power, that is why we have to always seek, more and more, the power of God in our lives.

And he says that the Gospel is power for the whole world; for the Jew, he says, and for the Greek. What does Paul mean by that? The Jews were already very close to salvation because they had Scripture, they had God's revelation, they were God's chosen people, but they had become corrupted and believed that they were better than everyone and had lost contact with the spirit of God. and God says, through Paul, for them the Gospel is necessary first, and if they receive the Gospel they are saved first for the people of God and also for the Greeks.

And speaking of the Greeks, he meant everyone who was not Jewish, everyone who belonged to any other culture and the Greek culture was like the essence of culture at that time, it was like the US, a power very large culture Rome had already taken power over them, but there was still the Greek influence, the symbol of Greece as the power of the secular world, of the secular, non-Jewish man.

So, Paul says, save everyone, those who are very close through their religious life and those who are far away, despite all their bad behaviors, as was the Greek culture, all his rationality and all his rationalism.

Brothers, the Gospel is for everyone, it is for the person, it is for the drug addict, it is for the womanizer, it is for the gambler, it is for the criminal and it is also for the respectable person. who works 9 to 5 and doesn't break a plate. For all the Gospel is necessary.

Guess what? You may be the most respectable citizen and the most generous philanthropist, but if you don't have Christ in your life, you are going to hell as the greatest criminal on earth. Because? Is God unfair? No, it's just that for you to enter God's perfect kingdom you would have to be perfect, and no one is perfect. And therefore, there is no such thing as good, half good, a little bit good, the only thing that guarantees a man or a woman can enter the Kingdom of God by their own justice would be perfection. And since no one can be perfect on this earth, everyone who is without Christ goes to hell, only Christ can give a man the ability to acquire that quality that allows him to enter the Kingdom of God.

That is why many people when you ask, say receive Christ as your Lord and savior, and they say, well, but why do I have to receive Christ if I don't kill, I I don't steal, I don't do anything bad, I don't hurt my neighbor. It is not about that, when you arrive at the throne of judgment the only question they are going to ask you is, did you receive Christ as your Lord and savior? And if you say, no, if you resisted Jesus here on earth, your passport will not be stamped, you will not be able to enter the Kingdom of God.

Take an example, when I was traveling now, every person who enters the US from another country has to go through a series of small desks, let's say, or counters where there is an immigration officer. And that officer asks for your passport and asks for your papers. Now, the only thing that will allow you to officially enter this nation or any other nation is that your papers are in order. You need either a US visa or a citizenship or residence card.

Now, imagine a person standing there at that admission officer's desk and saying, where are your papers? And he tells him, I don't have papers but I am an honest person and this country can use me because I have knowledge of science and other things, and I am a good citizen and I promise that I will respect the laws. In my country people say that I am the most respectable person in the entire nation. The officer is going to tell you, we are so sorry. If you do not have your papers in order, you cannot enter this nation. right yes?

And it is the same with respect to entering the Kingdom of God, the only thing is your papers in order. And who can stamp? Christ Jesus, the blood of Jesus. There has to be a drop of blood in your passport to enter the Kingdom of God, the blood of Christ. And that is why we have to announce the Gospel because it is power for..... It doesn't matter who you are, whether you are good, very good or very bad, if you are not in Christ, you do not have salvation.

Now, that's why salvation brothers is something of faith. Here it says that the justice of God because the Gospel of the justice of God is revealed by faith and for faith. In the original Greek the idea is rather from faith to faith, or from faith to faith. What he means is that the Gospel is from 'a' to 'z' a matter of faith, of believing God.

That's why I don't believe much in arguing with people about the Gospel. For me, I try to discern if a person wants to believe or not, if they are willing to believe. I give her a little time and try to help her with some arguments and I have studied a little bit of apologetics and I have my own arguments for why I believe in Jesus Christ from the rational perspective. But when I discern that a person wants to enter into an argument with me, and kind of convince me that what you are preaching to me is true. And when I already see a resistance and a kind of rational arrogance in that person, I stop talking and go another way or simply tell him, look, maybe we can continue at another time; or I'm going to pray for you, or let me pray for you, or whatever. But I am not arguing because salvation is by faith, it is that we believe, it is that there must be an essential humility in human beings that says, okay, I hold on and lower my head.

That's why sometimes the Lord has to take... there are people that God has to hit hard, they have to suffer, they have to get to the bottom of their lives, they have to fail a lot to get there to that point of receptivity and that they recognize then, yes, I have to lower my head and accept. Because while man is very sure of himself, very confident, very strong, he begins to argue against God and does not want to receive the Gospel.

So the Gospel is by faith. One has to believe it. I tell people, someone has said that it is like jumping into the void. There are many people who are, I believe or not, and you see them come to church, and they have spent years and still have not given their lives to the Lord. You see that their heart is still upright inside, they have not yet taken that step, they do not have that humility in their face of the person who has finally bowed their head before the Lordship of Christ.

And one asks why don't you turn yourself in? Well, I'm just waiting to see if... because I'm still not convinced. And that's like people before they get into the water. You have been here to the cold beaches of the USA in the summer, right? and you put your big toe in and ufff and take it out at once because it's cold. And then he puts 4 fingers in and takes them out faster because it's cold. And if you're there thinking, I'll shoot or not, you'll never do it. You have to throw yourself there and suffer for two seconds and the agony is over and you're already in. Such is the Gospel. One has to jump and then when you are inside the Gospel, many things that you did not understand before, you will understand perfectly well because you enter the Gospel that way. It is by faith.

That is why he says that the grace of God, that is, the justification that God gives man through Jesus Christ, is revealed through faith in what God has declared. Because it says that the just will live by faith. The Gospel is a matter of faith. We have to live by faith, believe God. When we are in trouble we continue to believe in God, when there is illness we continue to believe in the Lord, when trials come, difficulties we continue to believe in the Lord because the just live by faith. It is not by works, it is not by circumstances, it is not by what you see, it is not by what they tell you, it is not by what you feel, it is by faith alone.

It is simply that you decide to believe that what God has said in his word is true. And as Job you say, even if he kills me, I will continue to believe in him. That is the final card that the believer plays. The just shall live by faith. That's the gist of... it's nothing you do either, you know. Salvation is not because you get down on your knees and walk a mile on your knees, like people used to do, make a promise, and whip your back until it bleeds, or go 30 days without eating cakes or sweets, or go to church every day, or tithe and give money. None of that makes you safe. All of that has meaning once you are saved, there are no works. The Gospel is purely by believing God.

That is why also when you have sinned, if you believe God that Christ can heal and forgive your sins, you are also healed of your sin. you are saved. You repent and you are saved.

In Christianity there is no such thing as a person who can be saved by doing things. It is not possible, it is not because I am a member of the church, nothing, the only thing that saves you is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in your life. And that is what stops the work of the devil in your life. It is by faith. It's all by faith. The Christian life is absolutely a matter of faith. And the Gospel announces these things to you.

When Paul says the Gospel, I think he is also referring to the entire word of God. Everything that is written here is the Gospel, it is the good news to humanity, that is why it is so important that we know the Gospel, that we know the word of God, that we study it, that we read it so that those truths can stick to our hearts. and become part of us.

One more thought and I'm going to finish with that then because we're going to have the sacrament in a moment. The Apostle Paul says here, "... because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all impiety and unrighteousness of men who hold back the truth with unrighteousness...."

Here a new concept in Scripture, in this passage. The thing is? The wrath of God, the wrath of God. You know there are Christian circles where the idea of God's wrath is not talked about because it doesn't sound politically correct. Because people.... that's why I sometimes get upset with many Christians who speak only of God as the God who accepts, the God who loves, the God who receives everyone, the God who does not differentiations.

Today there is a heresy, both outside and inside the church that has cut off a part of the personality of God and only puts God like a senile grandfather who smiles at everything and accepts everything and he allows everything, and that for him the whole world is fine, everything is acceptable and when the church says, but that is not what the word of the Lord says. God draws barriers and clear boundaries. There are people who get angry with Christians. The idea that God gets angry is something that many people do not want to accept, but the Bible says that God is love but what is also? Consumer fire.

And look at the word anger in the original Greek is the same word that is used for orgy. It means it is anger, it is a flame, it is a flame of fire. The wrath of God is that, it is fire, it is something that explodes. In God there is a terrible capacity for anger.

That is why when God appears to the Hebrew people in his first manifestation on Mount Sinai, he says that trumpets were heard, and there was fire and thunder, and that presence of God was so terrible that the Jews They said, hmm, Moses, you better go, but we don't want to go there. You talk to God and represent us and tell us what he says, but we don't want to get close. It was so terrifying. There is an anger that God feels against man at this time. The heart of God loves and wants reconciliation but is also angry. And when man resists God, God gets angry and upset because he is a sovereign.

Imagine going up to President Bush and starting to treat him too confidently or insult him in your own White House. How will that potentate react? Of course, yes, with anger and annoyance. And God will be angry with the human race that resists the word of God. There is a wrath of which God is very capable and careful with us wanting to relegate God only to kindness and acceptance.

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against what?, against all impiety and injustice of men who stop the truth with injustice. You know, the word stop in the original Greek, the idea is that they endure or resist or oppose God's revelation. In this time of humanity, for example in this country and especially in the Western world, there is a type of resistance from God that is obstinate. It is an arrogant resistance. There is a spiritual pride that modern man has for all his power, all his science, all his discoveries, all the objects that his reason has given him. And every day man resists the word of God more and more, resists the revelation of God and that makes God feel angry.

Here he speaks of impiety and injustice. Godlessness is the word 'asevia' which means in English there is a better word that says 'godlessness'. It is an attitude of offense against the very person of God. It is an attack against the character, against the person, against the lordship, against the royalty of God. The opposite of that is godliness which is a respect and an acceptance of God and a subjection to God.

And the other word, injustice refers to an external behavior, contrary to the values of the Gospel. One is an internal attitude and the other is an external behavior. And against those two things, the wrath of God is revealed, against man. And because? He says because they know the essentials of God.

You know, brothers, man in the depths of his heart knows who God is. Maybe they don't know all the details but there are things they know. Because when they look at nature and look at the world around them, there are things that one understands.

For example, a morning like this, beautiful when the sun rises and one looks at the firmament, as that precious hymn says: “Lord, my God when contemplating the heavens, the firmament and the thousand stars; hearing your voice in the powerful thunder and seeing the sun shine at its zenith, my heart sings the song, how great he is, how great he is.

There are things, brothers, that when one looks at nature, when one looks at human order, when one looks at a bird taking care of its little birds, when one looks, I don't know, the love of a mother towards your son, towards your creature, when you look at this world that is created to support life, there are things that you can derive from that. One understands that this must have been created by a thinking God, by a God of order, by a just God, by a God of love and affection, by a paternal God, by a God who loves life. There are many things, there are many values that when one observes nature and one sees the order of creation, one has to conclude these things.

And there is something in what is called the human conscience that speaks of certain fundamental truths, a certain morality that is shared by all the religions and all the cultures of the world. Through the centuries they have shared certain moral ideas, despite all the differences in religions. And all this is because God has written in the world his style, his personality and today humanity like the one that existed in the time of the Apostle Paul 2000 years ago, today humanity is returning to that same type of rational resistance, and they are imposing their own values over the values of the word of God.

We are going to see next Sunday that all this, the Apostle Paul is like a prosecutor who is.... I am going to ask the brothers if they can sit down for a moment please, we are going to finish, but let's try to stay for a moment, we're going to finish and let's be calm for a moment.

Brothers, Pablo in this case is like a prosecutor who is making a case against the man. We are going to see in the next couple of sermons that he is building a case against humanity. First he goes to those who do not know God and then he even goes to those who believe they know God, to show that all are guilty, all are under condemnation and that the only thing that can save them is the person of Jesus Christ.

So what Paul is saying here is this: all humanity is resisting God in their natural state, they resist the revelation of God, they resist what they see, the arguments of nature and therefore they are guilty, they deserve death, they deserve wrath, and the only one who can save them is Christ Jesus.

And that is why Paul says, therefore I am not ashamed of preaching that Gospel because it is the only hope for man, it is the only hope of salvation that humanity has.

Brothers, this morning I want each one of us to recognize that fact that without Christ we cannot be saved, without Christ there is no hope for any of us because God has made it very clear that we have all sinned. , we have all offended God, every human being needs to actively submit his life to the principles and teachings of the Gospel.

Brothers, there is a world out there that is being lost, there are people who are going to hell every day without knowing where they are going. There are people who have been given a false sense of security and believe that simply because they go to church or because they give money to good causes, or because they are citizens who love dolphins and love the poor, and are fighting for justice, as that already makes them acceptable before God. And we have to be a humble but very clear voice that tells humanity, look, no, it is not like that, the only thing that guarantees that you can have peace with God is the Gospel, the person of Christ Jesus, that you believe in him, that you give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ because otherwise you are under the wrath of God. You are a son of wrath.

It says in Ephesians that we were all children of wrath before we knew Jesus Christ. So we honor God by simply saying, Father, we acknowledge that without you we are nothing, that without you we cannot receive salvation.

Let's stand up for a moment and I would like to invite everyone who is here in your heart to say yes to the Gospel and renew our faith in Jesus Christ. But before I do that, I want to ask if there is anyone this morning who has not yet taken that step of giving their life to Jesus and receiving the Gospel of salvation, and receiving the word of Christ in their heart and accepting Jesus as their Lord and your savior, that this morning you have the opportunity to do so, to pray for you and commend you to the Lord.

I want to ask first if there is anyone who has not done it before and who wants to give their life to Jesus this morning. I would ask you to raise your hand wherever you are so that we pray for you and you can come into that personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Is there someone that hasn't done it before that we can pray for this morning? If you want to raise your hand wherever you are.

Let's take a moment; In order to be saved from God's wrath we need to make our covenant with Jesus Christ first. Is there anybody that hasn't taken that step yet, would want to do it this morning? Amen. Yes, sister, God bless you Iliana, amen. There will be someone else who publicly wants to say to the Lord, Lord Jesus, I receive you as my Lord and savior this morning, wants to have peace with God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Will there be someone else? Amen.

Now I also want that together with that sister who expressed her desire to receive Jesus, that all of us also say these words in our hearts. Repeat them after me softly:

Lord Jesus, I acknowledge that you are the son of God, the savior of my soul. You are the owner of my life, by your death I have been saved and I can have peace with God. I submit my life to you and surrender everything I have and everything I am to your lordship and renounce Satan and all his works. I renounce the world and renounce my own flesh and embrace the values of the Kingdom of God. Thank you Lord because through your death on the cross, I am saved. I praise and bless you, in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen.